Kyle 091: Eyes Only
by general MB
Summary: You've read the story of Kyle-091, but what about the parts you didn't see? Check out the lost tales of our favorite Spartan.
1. Chapter 1: spartanized

**Message from the general: **Ok all you fans, you've been waiting for a Kyle-091 sequel and guess what... this isn't it. This is more of a clip show of delete scenes, things I forgot to cover and some new adventures for our favorite Spartan. The actual sequel will hopefully be out early next year, so don't worry, its coming. But in the mean time please read and review this story.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine **

**chapter 1: spartanized **

March 10, 2525

location: epsilon eridani system, Reach- ONI orbital medical instillation

Doctor Halsey sat in the observation booth of one of the private surgical bays looking at their newest Spartan. Kyle Stevens, or as he is now known, Kyle-091.

"Doctor" said her personal AI, Deja as she materialized on the nearby holotank. "The surgeries are complete... you're not going to like the results".

"Just give it to me" said Halsey as she removed her glasses and rubbed her temples.

"In all, thirty-three Spartans have made it through without any adverse effects" Deja reported "twelve had debilitating injuries, some of them severe. And therefore have been recommended for discharge. Thirty are dead, either through the surgery or during recovery... the doctors had to euthanize one".

Haley rubbed the gathering tears from her eyes and put her glasses back on. "What about Kyle?"

"His vitals are stable. Now that we have an idea about what the side effects for the augmentations are, the doctors should be able to avoid some of the mistakes and give Kyle a higher rate of survival".

"He was right" Halsey muttered.

"Doctor?"

"Kyle told be before he was sedated that thirty would die" Halsey explained.

"Did you need more proof of his story?" Deja asked "I thought you already believed him".

"I do Deja, its just part of me wants to find out all the secrets of the future, locked inside his mind. And another part wants to protect him, somehow atone for the other Spartans by saving him from ONI".

"Doctor, that wasn't your fault" said Deja "the gains outweighed the risks and you and I both know this".

"I know this whole routine, Deja" said Halsey "give me an update on Kyle's augmentation".

"A readout of Kyle's vitals as well as a diagram of his skeletal structure appeared on her glasses".

"The carbon ceramic has bonded to his bones without any adverse effects" Deja began "although his white blood cell count is diminishing. He is receiving the first injections of the muscle enhancement proteins. Kyle's biochemistry is becoming temporarily altered and he's rejecting the sedative given earlier. The doctors are going to use something stronger for him like the other Spartans, but it would still leave him in a semi conscious state".

"In other words, he's going to feel the rest of the operation to some degree" said Halsey.

"The doctors warn of possible brain damage when they go to perform the superconducting of his nerves, something about a MRI taken earlier" said Deja.

"He'll make it" Halsey said as she got up and went down to the surgical bay to see him. Kyle was lying in the bed, in excruciating pain. He could barely look over at Halsey when she entered. Halsey couldn't help but wince at his condition. Fresh scars covered his arms, legs and chest. His head had been shaved and lines were drawn on his scalp to mark out where the injections for the superconducting would go. His right arm was covered in IVs that fed him the muscle proteins and other essential nutrients and fluids.

"Doctor" he finally croaked "this hurts like hell".

"I know" Halsey replied in a reassuring voice "it'll be over soon".

"It feels like my bones are breaking" said Kyle "I can barely move and it hurts to talk".

"Its just the carbon compounds adhering to your bone marrow" said Halsey "its going to hurt, don't talk anymore if it hurts".

Kyle blinked once, the universal meaning for yes. Halsey noticed how bloodshot his blue eyes were, but she had to admire his tenacity. Kyle had withstood the pain of the bone grafts better than any of the other Spartans. Halsey had to wonder if it had anything to do with the differences in his genetic profile.

"Doctor" Deja said over the speakers "they're about to begin".

"Very well" Halsey said as she prepared to leave "hang in there, Kyle".

Kyle offered a weak smile in return and Doctor Halsey left. A few moments later several more medical personnel entered and one of them shot a golden liquid into Kyle's IVs. Kyle started to feel a bit woozy and he could sense being on the edge of reality and unconsciousness. Unfortunately it left him susceptible to pain and he could feel the doctors plunge their needles into his skull. Kyle tried to cry out in pain but the sedative had numbed his jaw, not to mention they were pumping him with as muscle relaxant. He was forced to endure the pain. Kyle saw the doctors move some kind of device over his eyes and then his vision cut out, he was still awake and could feel his eyes like they were on fire. It was getting harder to breathe and every time he twitched in response to pain, his reinforced bones ached. His skin burned as the nerves received the superconducting compound. Eventually a spasm hit and Kyle fully passed out from the pain.

--

"What happened!" Halsey cried from the observation booth. Kyle's EKG had spiked in the red, so did his blood pressure, then it stabilized.

"The doctors are reporting swelling in his frontal lobe" Deja said from the holotank "they're giving him drugs to place him in a coma until it goes down".

"What about the superconducting, did they finish it?"

"Yes" Deja replied "along with his capillary reversal, they're reporting 100 percent in his optic nerves. No blindness".

"Good" Halsey muttered. Kyle was through the worst of it, all that remained were more protein injections and a couple minor surgeries. Those were being started now. The doctors used a laser scalpel to slice open his neck a tad bit and in went a small platinum sphere, containing catalysts for his growth.

"Doctor I should probably warn you that since Kyle is the middle of puberty. The compounds in the catalyst that are supposed to suppress his sex drive will not function at their present levels. But increasing the levels will cause severe elephantiasis".

"That's ok" Halsey said in a calm voice "Kyle can behave himself, if you know what I mean".

"Of course, Doctor" said Deja. "But it is surprising that he made it through without suffering any kind of damage. Admiral Jeromni had warned against using the augmentations on adolescents".

Halsey had to wonder that too. Perhaps it had something more to do with the genetic differences. She turned her attention back to Kyle as he was turned over, and how lay face first against the bed. The doctors removed a small metal device from a vat of disinfectant and began setting it into a fresh incision at the base of his skull. His neural lace. After they were done the doctors began prepping him for travel over to the docking ring, where the _atlas_ was stationed. Kyle would have to recover on the way. The other Spartans had already been cleared by recovery and were being sent to the _atlas_, they all need to be exposed to micro gravity in order to get used to the new bioelectrical signals their bodies were using.

--

John-117 walked very slowly down the corridor to the airlock. He was helping Kelly-087 to the ship as well, her arm was looped around his. John had elected to walk to the ship as the other Spartans were taken by wheelchair. "Lead by example" Chief Mendez had said to him. Kelly was the only Spartan who walked with him, the others were just too weak to stand and a few were carried off in neutral buoyancy tanks. John himself was also weak and Kelly wasn't fairing any better. Like him, she had lost her hair but her skin was pail and clammy, there were dark circles under her bloodshot eyes and she walked with a slight limp.

"I can still get you a wheelchair" John said to her.

"I'll make it" was her quiet reply. John didn't talk to her for the rest of the walk which took twenty minutes in their weakened state, but just as they reached the airlock a voice from behind them called out "make a hole". John and Kelly pressed up against the wall as several doctors wheeled a gurney down the hall. The top of the gurney was covered by a biohazard cover, designed to protect the outside world from infectious patients or vice versa.

"His white blood cell count is dangerously low" one of the nurses said.

"Get him started on a booster regiment as soon as we reach the infirmary" one of the doctors said as the gurney entered the tubular airlock and disappeared down one of the carrier's corridors.

"John, Kelly" Halsey said as she came up from behind them "what are you doing up walking?"

"Ma'am, I'm well enough to walk" John said "Kelly wanted to accompany me".

"John, neither of you are fine enough to walk" Halsey said "especially Kelly".

Kelly let out a small grunt of disapproval but she knew she was weak. Her legs were trembling but she managed to tug on John to get him to start walking again. He complied and they made their way through the airlock and onto the carrier, showing Halsey otherwise. Kelly looked down the corridor for any sign of the gurney they saw earlier, but they must have reached the infirmary by now.

"Come on, you two" said Halsey as she boarded the carrier "we better get you a couple of beds. You need as much rest as possible".

John had to agree so he and Kelly followed doctor Halsey to a private area of the carrier that had been set up for them. John took Kelly over to one of the bunks and had her lie down.

"Who do you think that was on the gurney?" Kelly asked him "Halsey was following it".

"I'll find out" John said as he went for the door. When he reached for it he could somehow hear Halsey talking to someone through the door. He cracked it open slightly and was able to deduce the other person was Chief Mendez.

"Its bad" Mendez said to Halsey "his immune system took a dive. Probably due to the bone grafts being done at his age. The docs have to keep him isolated until the marrow can adapt".

"What about the brain swelling?" Halsey asked

"No change" Mendez reported.

"Ok, keep me posted if you hear something" said Halsey

"Will do" Mendez replied.

John shut the door quickly and collapsed on one of the beds, too weak to even ponder who the Chief and Halsey were referring to.

* * *

April 21, 2525

location: lambda serpentis system, UNSC carrier _atlas_

Kyle stood alone in his room, looking over his augmentations. A few scars were visible from where the doctors cut in for the bone grafts. Just thinking about them brought back fresh memories from the augmentation surgery, all the pain he'd endured. Kyle ran a hand across his bald head, he could feel the small hairs as they grew back in.

"_give it a couple weeks"_ Kyle thought to himself as he examined the rest of his body. Kyle had noticed his new, well toned muscles.

"_Damn, I'm ripped"_ Kyle thought "_that enhancement stuff really works"_. He didn't feel any stronger though, probably due to the micro gravity he was in. Kyle changed into the fatigues that were laid out on his bed and when he was finished chief Mendez entered, carrying a tray of food.

"Chief" Kyle said as he saluted.

"Very good" Mendez said.

"One of the things I picked up growing up in a military family" Kyle said as Mendez handed him the tray. It was Kyle's first real meal in weeks and he scarfed it down inside of five minutes. After he was finished, Chief Mendez brought Kyle down to the infirmary. Had him sit down on one of the beds and roll up his sleeve so the doctors could give him an injection.

"What's this?" Kyle asked as the doctor pressed the needle into his skin.

"Its extra vitamins and minerals your body needs so it can adjust to the augmentations" Mendez explained "you'll also need to eat again in a couple of hours".

"Hey, I'm not complaining" Kyle said as the Doctor finished. Mendez then took him through the ship.

"Several sections are off limits for Spartans" he explained on the walk "we don't need to get the crew suspicious on what we're doing here".

"Not a problem" Kyle replied as they entered the armory, it was empty and lined with racks of weapons. But Mendez led Kyle over to a small firing range in the back. On one of the cubicles was a disassembled M6D".

"Reassemble it" Mendez ordered.

Something snapped on in Kyle's head because he walked over and put the pistol back together in thirty seconds flat.

"What the hell!?" Kyle said as he held the M6D and turned to face Mendez "I barely know anything about this thing, or at least I thought I did".

"Subliminal training" Mendez explained "its in its experimental stages now, the Spartans were the test case because of your enhanced brains. You're actually the first we've tried it on."

"Lucky me" Kyle replied as he set the pistol down and suddenly his arm snapped up to catch the assault rifle Mendez had tossed him.

"Its one of the new MA5Bs" Mendez explained "faster rate of fire than the old MA5s, not to mention ten extra rounds in the clip". He also tossed Kyle a clip of standard armor piercing rounds. He activated the targeting exercise and targets began popping up on the firing range, Kyle nailed every one of them in a few seconds flat.

"Doing good" Mendez said. He handed Kyle one of the SRS99C S2 rifles which he stripped down and reassembled inside of a minute.

"This is getting weird" Kyle remarked "what else did you stick in my head".

"There's a limit to what we can introduce" said Mendez "we'll do another session in hand to hand combat tactics while you're in cryo on our way back".

Kyle set the rifle down and let out a sigh. Mendez saw this.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked.

"This is all just going to take a little getting used to" said Kyle "it feels like yesterday that I was at home, just an average seventeen year old kid. Summer vacation was up in a week and a half".

"You'll do fine here" Mendez said, trying to offer him some comfort. Mendez training told him to berate a trainee who's homesick, but in a way Kyle had lost everything he knew and everyone he loved. Not to mention being thrust into an impossible situation. For now he would be a little lax with the kid".

"Hey, Chief. When am I going to get to meet some of the other Spartans?" Kyle asked.

"We'll be getting you integrated in a day or so" Mendez replied.

* * *

April 22, 2525

location: lambda serpentis system, UNSC carrier _atlas _

Kyle tossed and turned in his sleep and eventually found himself awake in bed. He reached down and pulled out the diary Halsey had given him a few weeks earlier and found time to write an entry, but he had to make it as inconspicuous as possible in case anyone ever read it.

_4/22/25_

_Well yesterday I met John, not exactly the best place or situation. I was told that one of the ODSTs died from his injuries, but lets change the subject. I didn't get a chance to talk to John as we were busy with the fight and I stormed out afterwards, ran into this ODST by the name of Silva, didn't strike me as a nice guy so I gave him the finger when he wasn't looking. Even if he did see me there wouldn't be a whole lot he could have done, would have been nice to pop him in the head though._

--

A few hours later Kyle passed through the commissary with his tray of food in one hand and a datapad in the other. He sat down at one of the empty tables and began reading the files on the computer. It was basically the history of the UNSC up to now and information on the rebels. He started eating when a girl who looked about his age walked up. Kyle looked up and saw she was bald, but the face he recognized as Kelly's from their brief encounter back at the station.

"Mind if I sit with you?" she asked.

"Please" Kyle replied as he offered her the chair across from his.


	2. Chapter 2: adjustments

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 2: adjustments**

April 22, 2525

location: lambda serpentis system, UNSC carrier _Atlas_

"_This is really awkward"_ Kyle thought to himself as he and his new 'friends', John, Sam and Kelly showed him the way to the cryo chamber. They had spent nearly all of the two free hours they had left getting to know one another. Kyle didn't talk much about his past, per instructions from Leary. Suddenly, Kelly stumbled and fell, Kyle and John were the first to her side.

"You ok?" Kyle asked. She was looking rather pail and her hand was shaking in his.

"This isn't the first time its happened" John explained as they helped her up "she nearly died during the augmentations. She's been having seizures and spasms for weeks".

"I'm fine" Kelly croaked as she tried to shake off Kyle and John's grip "just let me walk, I can make it."

Kyle and John reluctantly let her go and she limped down the hall, Sam at her side in case she took another dive. Kyle was surprised at her tenacity and strength, it served as a reminder to him that he didn't even know the true limit of his enhanced endurance yet. After walking at a reduced passed they arrived at the main cryo chamber. Kyle had no clue how this was supposed to work and felt embarrassed to try and ask John or Sam how to get in, his only knowledge of cryo sleep was the basic overviews he read in the books. The Halo books, they were his only source of knowledge now and some of the minor facts he couldn't recall. But thanks to his brain augmentations, his memory of the more important ones were crisp and clear. During his pondering he neglected to notice that John, Sam and Kelly had disappeared somewhere. He started to look around and gawked as he came around the corner, on either side of the wall was a line of cryopods. About thirty of them were active and he noticed the lid was open on three toward the end, John Sam and Kelly were getting undressed and stowing their clothes in cases affixed to the base of the pod. Kyle quickly backtracked, not wanting to watch them get undressed and nearly smacked into Doctor Halsey.

"Sorry, didn't see you there I guess" Kyle said.

"That's ok" Halsey said as she offered Kyle a kind smile "I was actually looking for you. Mendez explained about subliminal training, correct?"

"Yeah" Kyle replied.

"Good, then follow me" said Halsey as she led Kyle back into the cryo room. John, Kelly and Sam were in their pods and the stasis had already been initiated.

"I understand you're feeling a bit nervous" said Halsey "everyone does, their first time in the freezer."

Kyle didn't reply, this was getting a bit weird enough. Adjusting to living in a world that only exited in books for him. Everything was new here.

"Here we are" Halsey said as they arrived at a pod on the other end of the room, it had another monitor hooked up to it which Halsey went over to. Typing her fingers against the touch screen surface the pod lid rose.

"You'll need to strip down" Halsey said.

"Don't you want to look the other way" Kyle asked, a little uncomfortable about getting naked in front of someone, especially a woman.

"You don't have anything I haven't seen before" Halsey said "its ok".

Still embarrassed, Kyle reluctantly took off his clothes, placed them in the case and clambered into the pod. The gel padding felt weird against Kyle's bare skin as he shifted around in the pod.

"Lean forward for a second" said Halsey.

Kyle complied and Halsey brought a cord with a small jack out from behind Kyle's head. He jumped and a shiver went down his spine when Halsey slotted it into his neural lace.

"Relax, its just for the subliminal training you'll receive while in cryo" Halsey explained "this whole process should feel like a dreamless sleep".

"Will I dream though?" Kyle asked.

Halsey didn't have time to reply as the lid sealed over Kyle. He closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep on his own. Kyle felt his whole body get cold, then nothingness as he entered cryo sleep for the first time.

* * *

June 30, 2525

location: UNSC carrier_ Atlas_- en route to epsilon eridani system

For a moment, Kyle thought he was in his own bed, in Virginia. But he senses came back and he realized he was still in the cryo tube. The cold was stinging his bare skin and his lungs burned every time he breathed in the cold air. Kyle banged on the side of the pod, trying to find a release button or something. Suddenly, the pod lid rose and Kyle staggered out, pulled the cord out of his neural lace and collapsed on the deckplate. He vomited up the nutrient supplement and he nearly passed out. Someone rolled him over on his back and covered his mouth with a breathing apparatus. In seconds, Kyle felt warm air enter his lungs and his breathing rate relaxed.

"You ok?" a voice asked as Kyle's vision became more focused. A med tech was standing over him, holding the respirator.

"Y-yeah" Kyle replied.

"Stay here" the tech ordered "I have to inform Doctor Halsey".

Kyle nodded and the med tech left. Kyle picked himself up and after shaking off some light headedness, he removed his clothes from the locker and got dressed. None of the cryo pods were opened, and were still active. So he woke up early. Kyle sat on the rim of the his cryo pod until Halsey arrived.

"Are you ok?" She asked in a concerned voice "they told me you nearly had a seizure getting out".

"I'm fine, it wasn't... I spoke too soon" Kyle said as he stomach became restless. Halsey haded him a small containment bag and Kyle promptly threw up his stomach contents into it. After he was finished, Halsey took the bag and Kyle wiped his mouth. Halsey tossed the bag in the nearest trash receptacle and turned back to Kyle, who was crying.

"What's wrong?" Halsey asked as she sat down next to him and squeezed his shoulder.

"Its nothing" Kyle replied "I'm just a little homesick". He wiped a tear away and muttered "why me".

"Pardon?"

"Why did this have to happen to me, I didn't do anything?" Kyle said. He didn't even notice he was leaning on Halsey a bit. Halsey could help but feel compassion for his situation, they still had no clue as to how Kyle got here or who sent him in the first place. She ended up wrapping her arm around Kyle and stayed like that for most of the day.

--

later that afternoon, the _Atlas_ dropped out of slipspace and docked with the Reach orbital military port. The rest of the Spartans had been revived and were filling for the hangar deck to board pelicans to take them to the surface. Kyle was going down on the chief's bird instead of going with the rest of the Spartans, before he left, Halsey came up to him, a brown bag in her hand.

"Kyle, I thought I should tell you I've been recalled to Earth to give a status update. I won't be back for a couple of months. I thought I should give this to you."

She handed Kyle the bag and Kyle took it.

"Leather?" He asked.

"Something like that" Halsey replied its "wear, weather and heat proof. The zipper is made from titanium-A. I sorted through all your personal effects you had and I picked out the ones you probably wanted to hold on to. I tossed your clothes though."

"Its ok" Kyle replied "I've got everything I need. Thanks for the bag". Then he did something spontaneous, he hugged Halsey goodbye.

"Watch yourself, Spartan" Halsey said to him.

Kyle gave her a thumbs up before running over to Mendez's waiting pelican.

* * *

June 30, 2525

location: Epsilon Eridani system, Reach- military reservation 01478-B

Aside for it being Kyle's first trip in an actual pelican, it was rather uneventful. Kyle took a deep breath upon stepping out of pelican and onto his first extraterrestrial world, Reach, and home for awhile. He still clutched the bag Halsey gave him. He found a sufficient cargo pocket on his pants to slide it into as he followed Chief Mendez, who gave him a tour of the training grounds.

"First time on a new world, huh" Mendez remarked "like it?"

"Its just like Earth" Kyle said "a lot like western Virginia, where my grandparents live. Or lived".

Mendez continued his tour of the firing ranges, obstacle courses and an Olympic sized running track that spanned most of the compound. He could see thirty people jogging along, some of them running faster than the drill instructors escorting them. Kyle recognized the leader of the group, John.

Mendez left Kyle in the middle of the parade grounds and went over to the other Spartans. "Trainees, your dismissed for the remainder of the afternoon" he ordered "report to the barracks at 1900 hours".

The Spartans dispersed and three of them noticed Kyle just standing in the middle of the grounds, and walked over to him. As they got closer Kyle saw it was Sam, John and Kelly, his 'friends' of sort. All of this just seemed like a bad dream.

"Hey, Kyle" Kelly said "I didn't see you on the pelican."

"I rode with the Chief" Kyle replied.

"What did you do to piss him off?" Sam asked.

"I was just late getting to yours" Kyle quickly made up "Halsey wanted to see me. Before she left for Earth."

"Hey, John" another girl cried out as she and another boy made there way over to them. The girl had close cropped red hair and dazzling green eyes. The boy was averaged sized with black hair that had curious silver streaks through it.

"Fred, Linda, I want you to meet Kyle" John said as he introduced him.

"So you're the new guy Kelly's been talking all about" Linda said.

"Have not!" Kelly shot back.

Before long, most of the other Spartans made their way over and were curious to see a new Spartan in their midst. They were all very friendly with Kyle, especially Kurt. It was really starting to look like a dream to Kyle. He didn't get to meet all of the Spartans before Mendez pulled a fast one and had drill instructors arrive for a determined game of capture the flag. But things soon got out of hand when one of them lost an arm after one Spartan, Randall, accidentally pulled it out of his socket when he tried to grab Randall. He was tasered by accident by two other trainers. Two Spartans, Cassandra and Sheila jumped on top of them to try and get them to stop. Both trainers suffered blows to the head before the two Spartans were hit by tranquilizer darts. Kyle was one of the first to their side, followed by Kurt. Kurt tried CPR on one of the trainers but he accidentally caved in his ribcage. There was blood on the grass and Kyle couldn't hold his composure anymore. He panicked and backed away from the scene as medical personnel rushed past.

--

Later that night, Kyle and the other Spartans were confined to their barracks after this afternoon's 'accident'. All three trainers died of their injuries, Mendez had greatly underestimated the Spartan's newfound strength and said tomorrow there would be a full battery of tests to determine what was the limit of the Spartan's abilities. Kyle didn't want any part of it, not after seeing all the gore on the training ground earlier. Kyle figured he could sneak out and clear his head for a while, which is what he did. Most of the base was in pitch black but Kyle was somehow able to see clearly. He avoided the guards and spotlights until he came to the main fence, and noticed the hight voltage signs. He started scanning the perimeter for a way out, but when he reached a bush his foot fell through a hole. Upon closer examination he found a crudely fabricated cover disguised as simple leaves and shrub, covering a small hand dug tunnel. Kyle checked its direction and sure enough it went right under the fence. Kyle had to crawl on his stomach to get through but once he reached another cover, he pushed through and found himself free at last. He walked through the woods for two hours, marveling at how Earth like it looked. It reminded him of Shenandoah state park back home. Before long he came upon a clearing, on a small cliff, probably about ten feet high. But the longhorn valley sloped beneath him and snaking through the middle was the big horn river. At night, Kyle thought it was the most breathtaking spot in all of Reach. He looked up at the foreign star pattern. Kyle was quite the astronomy buff back home but he couldn't find a single familiar star in the night sky. _"The orientation's off"_ Kyle thought to himself, he would need to find a local star map on base. Kyle's enhanced hearing kicked in when he herd a rustle of the bushes behind him, followed by faint whispering. Someone was watching him, but a trainer from the base would have grabbed him by no, which meant only one possibility.

"You might as well come out" Kyle called out. He turned his head to see two Spartans emerge from the trees. One boy and a heavily muscular girl.

"You're not going to turn us in, are you?" The girl asked, she spoke in a Slavic accent.

"Nope" Kyle replied "I figured you're trying to get away from it all, too."

"You're the new one, right?" The boy asked.

"Yep" Kyle said "you two probably dug that neat hole I used to get off the base, right?"

"That's us" the boy replied as he went to sit on one side of Kyle while the girl sat on Kyle's other side.

"What's your name?" Kyle asked.

"Jai" the boy said "Jai-006".

"And I'm Adriana-111" the girl said.

"Kyle-091, nice to meet you" Kyle said.

"So what brings you out here, Kyle?" Jai asked.


	3. Chapter 3: friends and allies

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 3: friends and allies**

June 30, 2525

location: Epsilon Eridani system, Reach- longhorn valley

"So what brings you out here, Kyle?" Jai asked him as they continued to sit on the small cliff, overlooking the longhorn valley.

"Like I said, I'm trying to get away from it all" Kyle replied.

"On your first day, huh" said Adriana. "Remind you of anyone, Jai?" She asked.

Jai let out a small chuckle at Adriana's remark. Kyle didn't get the joke and soon inquired as to what Adriana was talking about.

"She was talking about the two of us" Jai explained "we tried to break out our first day too, kept on doing it for five months".

"Weren't you caught?" Kyle asked. No sooner had he said that, a pelican flew out over the distance, its spotlight shining on the treetops.

"You better come with us" Adriana said as she grabbed Kyle's hand and took him through the woods, Jai leading them. Jai took them to a small path that wound down the cliff and deeper into the longhorn valley. The pelicans buzzed overhead, still searching for the rogue Spartans.

"It won't be long before the ground teams come in" Adriana warned Kyle "stick close, we're going somewhere safe".

They continued evading the pelican's spotlights and even dodged a few tranquilizer rounds fired from the hovering dropships, until they arrived at another rock face. Adriana moved a small boulder that was covering a small cave entrance. The three Spartans had to go in on their stomachs and Kyle brought up the middle, he saw light ahead of Jai and after he entered a cavernous room, Kyle was able to see what Adriana had meant by somewhere safe. It was a large cavern with a sloping edge that led to a small water reservoir. The whole cavern was lit by portable lanterns and glowsticks and there were a few boxes of supplies, even a couple of weapons. Kyle also noticed someone else in the cave, another Spartan. He was sitting on a rock just above the reservoir, datapad in his lap.

"That's Mike by the way" Jai said "he's the other member of our team".

"Team?" Kyle asked.

"Sorry, forgot to mention. Me Adriana and Mike make up gray team" said Jai.

"You're gray team!?" Kyle said.

"Since you're new I guess no one bothered to tell you what the team formats are" said Mike as he finally looked over at Kyle. "You're Kyle, right?"

"Yep" Kyle replied. He couldn't believe it, he was talking with the mysterious gray team. He remembered there was supposed to be a book coming out about them, but it wasn't being released until that November. _"Hell, I actually get to meet them"_ Kyle thought _"worth the trade off". "_How did you get all this stuff?"

"We break out regularly" Jai explained "so we swiped some stuff from the base and hid it in safe areas around the forest. It used to be just me and Adriana but then Mendez introduced us to Mike".

"I tried to get out on a pelican. I blew the whole thing up after I crashed it" Mike explained "then I met these two and we occasionally go for strolls like this".

"So were you caught when you kept trying to get away?" Kyle asked.

"Oh yeah" Jai replied "I just wanted to go home".

"You missed your family?" Kyle asked.

"He didn't have any" Adriana explained "he lived in a orphanage".

"So then why go back there?"

"I guess I was scared" Jai admitted "we all were in a way". He moved closer to Kyle so he was out of earshot of Adriana. "Eventually, Doctor Halsey called me into her office, threatened to give me a shot of something that would erase all my memories. Then dump me on some street corner".

Kyle couldn't believe what he was hearing, that Halsey would resort to something like that.

"But she gave me another offer" Jai said "stay and she'd give me a family, a real chance to do something special. That, and her".

Kyle lowered his voice to a bare whisper, "you mean Adriana, right?"

Jai nodded. "She was only friend I'd made after I arrived. So I decided to stay and here we are. Gray team was forged".

Kyle had to remark the similarities in Jai's story to his own. It made him wonder what exactly he was doing out here.

"So what's your story, Kyle?" Jai asked "why did you run?"

"Were you there for the game earlier today, the three trainers?"

"Yeah" Jai replied "it spooked you, right?"

Kyle nodded.

"You have any place to escape back to, any family?" Jai asked.

"No" Kyle replied "not anymore. It was a bit sudden, one moment I have a perfect life and the next, I'm in a room with Halsey and Mendez, getting a similar choice laid out. Either the Spartan program or I take my chances trying to hide from ONI, there was no going back home".

"What did you do to get ONI on you?" Jai asked.

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, got caught up in something. Then I was fighting for my life. I stumbled across Halsey and she took me in, found out I was compatible for the Spartan program and gave me the option of joining up".

"So is running from ONI more appealing now?" Jai asked.

"I don't know" Kyle said "I don't really fit in, being the new guy and all. I haven't made any real friends".

"Sure you have" Jai said "you're talking to one right now. Plus, you seemed to get along nicely with John and blue team. Just give it a shot, I did".

"But you're here now" Kyle pointed out "hiding out in a cave".

"This is just for fun" Jai said "to try and get away from it all".

Kyle smiled a bit at Jai mentioning his own reason for escaping. Maybe he would give it a shot, maybe the Spartans were the closest thing to family he had now, even though he barely knew them. Gray team was the exception, though. He nearly confessed his secret to Jai, but kept it cleverly hidden. A guy he knew less than a few hours.

"Shouldn't we be getting back?" Kyle asked.

"You're welcome to leave, but I'd advise against it" Jai warned. "Tango company's got retrieval duty and we're not on the best of terms. It won't matter if you're new. Best just to stick around for a while then come back with us".

Kyle agreed and spent the next couple of hours talking with either Jai and Adriana, getting a computer lesson from Mike, he was very informative on basic UNSC systems. Or just dunking his feet in the reservoir. Eventually, the glow sticks ran out and Adriana powered off the lanterns, the four Spartans made their way back out, covered the cave entrance and headed back.

"This way" Jai pointed out to Kyle when he tried to go to the tunnel he used to escape. "We dug several so we could keep the guards confused".

They made it to another one, concealed in a hollowed out stump. It was longer than the first but its entrance inside the base was well hidden. They passed the patrols that were still on duty, dodged the spotlights and made it back to the barracks. Jai held Kyle back for a minute before going in.

"if you ever want to get away from it all with some friends again, don't hesitate to call".

"Thanks" Kyle said as they snuck back inside. They split up and went to their assigned bunks, Kyle finding his and quietly slipping off his shoes and jacket before climbing in. he was thinking about his conversation with Jai. Then he looked around the barracks at the other bunks, each with a Spartan in it. His family now.

--

After only a few hours sleep, Kyle was awakened for roll call and he nearly fell out of bed. He stood at attention as Mendez arrived and began inspecting each of the Spartans. He noticed the dirt on Jai, Mike and Adriana's boots and had them out doing laps as punishment. He paused for a moment when he noticed Kyle's dirty boots, but only gave him a polite nod before continuing on. They were then ordered by the Chief to assemble outside, but Kyle went up to him, with one question on his mind.

"Why did you send me out there with gray team?" He asked.

"I arranged that little rendezvous for you" Mendez explained "I saw you weren't doing so well and figured you'd try to run. With your augmentations there wouldn't be a whole lot we could do to stop you so I had gray team go after you. You're a lot like Jai in some ways, similar situations. Figured he could convince you to come back".

"Still, I broke out, shouldn't I get punishment?"

"Not this time" Mendez said "but pull a stunt like that again and you better believe you'll be doing laps until sundown, now carry on, petty officer!"

"Yes, sir" Kyle said as he filed out, and caught up with everyone else. They had filed into lines representing the various teams. Kyle saw Kelly and Sam wave him over so he joined them. John was talking to Fred before he noticed Kyle and rejoined the group. Chief Mendez arrived and everyone snapped to attention.

"Now as I'm sure many of you know, we have a new Spartan with us. And you were all present for yesterday's accident. Today, we're going to give you some tests to determine how powerful you're augmentations are. We'll do this by team so get into you're assigned groups".

A few of the Spartans had to shift around but most of them were in their assigned teams. Linda was with Kyle on blue team, of which Kyle was a de facto member. They moved out to the medical complex and were ushered into separate rooms. Then taken to the lab complex. First up was a written exam of various academic topics, mostly math with a few history questions. Kyle found it uprising he was able to perform all the complex equations, when he sucked at math back home. Mendez was right, there was no limit on what their new strength was. After wards it was off to a darkened room where his eyes adjusted in seconds, everything had a slight yellow glow to it as Kyle was told to go through a small obstacle course. He navigated it flawlessly. His reaction time was tested next, in a variety of ways, from simply listening to sounds and identify the direction it came from, to having someone point a dummy weapon at his head, during which he was to duck only, out of fear of what happened yesterday. Eventually, he met up with blue team as they underwent a speed evaluation. The course was a simple track in one of the sub basements of the lab complex. John was just finishing his, he moved like lighting on the track. Up next was Kelly and Kyle's jaw nearly dropped as he marveled at how fast she could run. Kelly could hardly believe it herself as she returned, up next was Kyle. He positioned himself on the starting line. And then the instructor told him to go. Kyle took off like a bat outta hell and made a complete lap in under a minute flat, then two more before the instructor had all the data.

"You're just about as fast as Spartan-087" the instructor said.

"Fast huh?" Kyle said aloud as Sam came over and gave him a celebratory slap on the back.

"You better watch out, Kelly" he said "Kyle here can catch you. So don't count on winning the next capture the flag with our new ace in the hole".

"We'll see" Kelly said "of course he'll be on my team for the next game".

"Unfair" Linda called out.

"Do I have to pull my rank?" Kyle said, joining in on the fun.

"Excuse me, Kyle" said a cool female voice from a small speaker on the wall "could you come here a moment?"

Kyle complied and wen over to the wall, but saw no one. Suddenly a holoprojector came to life and the figure of a woman appeared, she looked like a Greek goddess.

"My name is Deja" she said "I doubt Halsey mentioned me".

"Wow" Kyle said, mesmerized by the technology. "Sorry, you're just the first AI I've ever met".

Her avatar smiled a bit "I'll be teaching you a few things during your time here. Our first lesson is in an hour, try not to be late".

* * *

July 5, 2525

location Epsilon Eridani system, Reach- military reservation 01478-B

"pitch the nose up" Deja warned.

"Backseat driver" Kyle shot back as he tried to keep the pelican stable while initiating an evasive maneuver to dodge a SAM fired at his dropship from the tree line. Alarms blared as the missile closed to within 100 meters.

"Crap, deploying flares" Kyle said as he activated the heat decoys to draw the missile away. The missile struck the decoys only seconds after Kyle had released them, too close. The pelican was sprayed with shrapnel. More alarms blared as the pelican began to spiral.

"What's happening?"

"Main fuel line has been ruptured" Deja reported. There was an explosion followed by a loss of all flight control. "The main line exploded" said Deja "we're loosing altitude".

"Reroute to the back up lines" Kyle ordered "and switch to secondary avionics".

"No good" Deja said as the pelican slammed into the ground at terminal velocity. The cockpit window displays shut off and the simulator righted itself. Kyle undid his safety harness and ran his hands through his hair, which was nearly back to its old length. The door to the cockpit opened and Chief Mendez stepped in.

"this is what, the fifteenth..."

"sixteenth" Deja corrected "this makes 16 failed pelican flights under fire and two successful".

"Don't remind me" Kyle groaned.

"You'll need to do better" Mendez said "or you and everyone in the back will just get pancaked by a lucky insurrectionist. You're dismissed".

Kyle filed past him and out of the simulator room. He had many lessons with Deja every day now that training sessions were canceled. Most of the time, the Spartans were confined in the barracks and only left for calisthenics. Kyle exited the Reach naval academy building and descended the stairs, then began the walk back to the Spartan barracks. Because of his age and rank, no passer by would suspect he was a Spartan. Kyle also realized he'd been in cryo for his first birthday since arriving, even though he was still biologically 17. So he decided to still use his old birthday, "_happy belated birthday to me"_ Kyle thought as he approached the barracks. But was ambushed by blue team and they started pulling him away.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"We're going on a trip" John said "chief's orders. It'll be fun"

"_Sure" _Kyle thought.

* * *

July 8, 2525

location: Reach, military reservation 01478-B- infirmary

"honestly, you didn't have to do this" Kyle told John. He wasn't allowed any visitors but John had blue team sneak in. Fred was keeping watch outside in the hall while Sam, Linda Kelly and John talked with Kyle about the ODST attack that happened yesterday morning. Although Linda wasn't actually there, she still petitioned to come along as did Fred.

"We still wanted to" Sam said "you kicked butt with that ODST. We probably wouldn't have been able to get the other two if you didn't get the third to go after you".

"All I got out of it was this flesh wound" Kyle said as he pointed to the biofoam cast covering his upper leg. The combat knife the helljumper used against Kyle gave him a severe muscle laceration, and he lost a good deal of blood, but didn't succumb to his injuries. That's when Kyle got a taste of his endurance. "Kelly deserves all the credit" he said.

"I don't" she said "I was just saving you, simple job".

"I think she just said you can't even watch after yourself, Kyle" Sam said

They all chuckled a bit, Kyle along with them. He was starting to act like he knew the Spartans for ages.

"Hold still" said Linda as she produced a camera, swiped from storage. "I want a shot of Kyle a bedridden".

"Come on, guys" Kyle said "no embarrassing photos, please".

"Too bad" Linda said as she snapped the picture.

"Nurse's coming" Fred said as he darted in "we better go".

John nodded and he and Fred went out the window first, followed by Linda and Sam. But Kelly hung back for a moment, put a hand on Kyle's shoulder and said.

"Welcome to blue team, Spartan"

She darted out the window and joined the others. Kyle leaned back against his pillow. He'd finally fitted in with his new... family.


	4. Chapter 4: debrief and midnight tango

**Message from the general: **OJ's off to prison, and I'm partying all night long. Did you see his pathetic plea, honestly, that lying bastard. I hope he rots and dies in jail.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 4: debrief and midnight tango**

September 13, 2525

location: Eridanus system, UNSC destroyer _pioneer- _hangar deck

Blue team's pelican had just docked with the pioneer and under Kyle's orders, a med team was waiting when the dropship cycled through the airlock to take John to the infirmary. A security team arrived to take the crate, containing colonel Robert Watts. The rest of blue team were allowed to return to the armory and get their gear off. Everyone was worried about John, except Kyle who knew he'd pull through with no problem. In the armory, Kyle removed his bodysuit and used the shower in the adjoining locker room. As the water flowed over him, cleaning the grime off his chest, Kyle thought about the mission, all the rebels who died, fellow human beings. Strangely, he felt no remorse, no guilt. Most of the people there were insurrectionists, the enemy, but there must have been some civilians, maybe even children. But he still felt no guilt. Kyle didn't know what to make of it, he noticed it before when he killed a rebel on the station, the first person he'd ever killed. He was starting to act more soldier than an actual person. The shower automatically shut off after five minutes and Kyle donned a fresh set of fatigues. As he left the armory he headed for the bunk room he shared with the other Spartans, but a pair of ONI officers blocked his path.

"Spartan-091, I'm sorry but we need to conduct your debriefing while the memories are fresh" said one of the officers.

For some reason, something snapped on in his head and Kyle simply said "yes, sir" and followed. He was brought up two decks and was told to wait outside a small briefing room. He was stuck there for 20 minutes before the door opened and Kelly stepped out. She didn't say anything to him as she passed by. The officer waved Kyle through and he stood at attention in front of a small table where several ONI officers, Chief Mendez and Doctor Halsey were seated.

"Petty officer" Halsey started "we need you to tell us exactly everything that happened during the mission".

"Yes, ma'am" Kyle replied. He outlined the events from their insertion over Eridanus II, to their final escape from the rebel base.

"Petty officer, did you at any time break off from the group and attempt to contact anyone?" one of the ONI officers asked.

"No, sir" Kyle replied.

"Did you see Spartan-117 break off from the group and attempt to meet or contact someone?"

"No, sir" Kyle replied. He was wondering why they would ask him if he, let alone John would try and contact someone on the station. He wanted to ask them why they were asking him about his and John's loyalty, but something in his gut told him to keep his mouth shut. He tried to will it away but it didn't work. Kyle stood ridged as the group whispered between each other. Kyle's enhanced hearing picked up their conversation.

"As I pointed out, lieutenant commander, they have no memory of their past lives, therefore no obligation to any family".

"May I remind you, Doctor. Spartan-117's file indicates he was on Eridanus II during the rebellion of that world, and intelligence files indicate his parents may have been rebel sympathizers".

"He was six years old when we took him!" Halsey said "do you really think his parents may have lorded him over with their secessionist beliefs".

"That's what they said about young children fighting for insurgency groups in 21st century Africa, doctor!"

"Sir" said another naval officer "the Spartan is still in the room".

"Of course" said the other man "Spartan, you're dismissed".

Kyle was enraged, he wanted put that man in his place for talking smack about John, but the tugging feeling in his chest resumed, his gut and brain were now telling him to shut up. He snapped a salute and said "sir, yes, sir". _Ok what the hell is wrong with me?_ Kyle wondered as he marched out of the briefing room. He wanted to talk with blue team when he reached the bunk room, but they and the other Spartans had fallen asleep. Kyle clambered in to his own bed and tried to fall asleep, but someone interrupted him.

"You still awake?" Kelly asked, Kyle forgot she occupied the bunk across from his.

"Yeah, you couldn't sleep?" Kyle said as he sat up in bed.

"No" Kelly replied as she came over and sat with Kyle on his bunk. "I kept thinking about what the brass asked me, they wanted to know if John tried to contact anyone. I think they think he's a traitor".

"They asked me the same question" Kyle replied. Something snapped on in his head, just like before, _your debriefing is classified, standard procedure says: don't talk to anyone about it._ But Kyle was somehow able to will this one away as he continued to talk to Kelly.

"Do you know why?" She asked.

"I overheard them talking" Kyle said "they think his parents may have been rebels".

"None of us even remember our parents" Kelly said "what did John's have to do with the mission?"

"He was born on Eridanus II" Kyle said "they're not sure if he's really some insurrectionist spy".

"I know he isn't" Kelly said "why would they even think he was a traitor?"

"They're looking for some way to shut us down" Kyle replied, drawing on what he knew from _fall of Reach _and colonel Ackerson, for all he knew, Ackerson could have been one of those officers from the debriefing. "You remember the ODSTs from the _Atlas_, whoever doesn't like us probably gave them our location on Reach".

"Someone's trying to kill us, what else is new" Kelly laughed, an attempt to brighten the somber mood. They still hadn't herd from John who was cooped up in the infirmary, Kyle could tell she was worried, though she hid it well.

"We should probably get some sleep" Kyle said to her. Kelly rose from his bunk and went back to hers. Kyle rolled over and faced the wall, he'd had a long day, killing his first human being on his first successful mission, again it didn't bother him in the slightest.

* * *

September 15, 2525

location: Epsilon Eridani system, Reach- old titanium mine

The _pioneer_ got back to Reach early in the morning and Chief Mendez didn't waist any time getting the Spartans back to the routine of calisthenics in their new training facility underneath Menachite mountain. Kyle manged to slip away from the group to track down Doctor Halsey. He shadowed her until she was alone in her office back on base, then promptly stormed in. Halsey was seated behind her desk, the room's holoprojectors were active because she was talking with a life sized Deja.

"What did you do to me?" Kyle spat "I want the truth!"

Halsey managed a semi smile, the kind you give when you know you've been found out. "I figured you realized something during the debriefing, I know you herd us discuss John. I saw this made you angry and you wanted to put those officers in their place, but something stopped you, something we unfortunately had to put in place".

"I can take it from here, Doctor" said Deja. With a flick of her wrist, another hologram appeared. This one was of a human brain. "In my initial psychiatric profile I did of you, Kyle, I concluded that on your own, you couldn't handle military protocol and would ultimately make a mistake in six months time. So during your subliminal training we introduced subliminal cues, essentially programed you to give the correct responses according to military protocol".

"You were also given subliminal commands to uphold your obligation to the UNSC" Halsey cut in "also commands to follow any order a superior officer may give you. I'm sorry we had to do this, I truly am".

Kyle was left speechless, Halsey was slowly striping away any trace of his humanity, his right to free will, all of it. "Don't you even care?" He finally muttered.

"Kyle, I care for all the Spartans as if they were my own children, even you" Halsey said "but even a mother must sometimes sacrifice for the greater good, for what lies ahead".

Kyle wasn't sure, but is sounded like Halsey was hinting at something, something big. Then it dawned on him, she and Leary... they lever listened to him. The UNSC must have gone anyway.

"Doctor, just what's happening?" Kyle inquired.

"I've said enough, go" she muttered.

Though it wasn't one of the subliminal commands he now had, Kyle still felt compelled to leave, and he did. As he returned to the mines he started to get a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, "_they never listened to me, not after what I warned them about..." _His pondering was broken by the approach of the rest of blue team. They had apparently snuck out too, to try and find him.

"Hey, Kyle" Kelly said "why did you sneak off like that?"

"No reason" Kyle replied as he turned to John, who now had a purple heart awarded to him after his injuries. Not to mention a nice set of scars to match it. "So what's happening now, any more missions being planned?"

"I wasn't told anything, but the Chief does like his surprises" John replied. "Best to stay ready just in case".

"Suppose you're right" Kyle said.

* * *

October 7, 2525

location: Epsilon Eridani system, Reach- military reservation 01478-B

The next couple of weeks passed without incident, then Chief Mendez decided for one last encounter with tango company. This was technically Kyle's first with this batch of marines, but the game was seek and evade, with the marines as hunters. Thanks to their augmentations and the body suits they'd swiped, blue team, which consisted of Kyle, John, Sam, Kelly, Linda and Fred, were able to evade the marines. The refrigeration units kept them clear of thermal scopes and with all the wild animal life running around, it would be impossible to get a lock with the motion tracker. That didn't stop the marine's pelicans from occasionally strafing an area of high motion activity, a couple times it was blue team. Chief Mendez said the exercise was supposed to last five days, but if they could take tango's flag, then it would be over. But Linda's recon had proved that they were moving it around a lot. John and Sam had run calculations on the best defensible positions for their random pattern and it came down to two choices, site A was being watched by John, Linda and Fred while sight B was under the watch of Kyle, Sam and Kelly. Eventually, in the early hours at site B, a tango scouting party showed up, followed by a small reaction force that began setting up barriers, digging trenches and lining the perimeter with stun mines. A few began putting up prefab-memory cubicles, but one of them set up the orange flag of tango company.

"Blue-two to blue-one" Sam said over an encrypted single beam relay network the Spartans had set up. "Package is at site B".

"we'll need to get the flag now" Kelly said "while their perimeter is weak".

"agreed" said Kyle who technically had command of the trio due to his rank. They used hand signals and Kyle directed them to hop among the various trees. Until they were over the camp, tango was preparing to cut down a good section of the foliage over the base just in case the Spartans did what they just did. Jump inside the perimeter. They didn't make a sound as they landed and their blacksuits blended in perfectly with the night. They had to hurry because tango was already rigging up flood lights for their base. Armed with only narq-dart pistols, they had to aim carefully to avoid hitting the temple. The two guards dropped which allowed Kelly to sprint forward and grab the flag. She rebounded toward Sam and Kyle but suddenly stopped and gave the hand signal, "it's a trap". Kyle's enhanced vision told him why, the pattern on the flag was pained on instead of embroidered. She dropped it and ran for the trees. Kyle and Sam in pursuit. But by now the marines were aware of their presence and just as Kelly used her enhanced strength to leap up to one of the tree branches, a line of stung grenades detonated in Kyle and Sam's path. Kyle pushed him forward and out of the blast but Kyle wasn't so fortunate.

--

Kyle woke up after someone smacked him hard in the jaw, causing him to bite his lower lip, he could taste blood. Several burly marines were in the room, all had smirks and smiles on their faces for capturing him.

"So, meat, how does it feel to be thwarted by 100 percent true UNSC material?" Their leader asked him.

"Did the Army have to help you come up with this plan, I know you're to primitive to do it on your own" Kyle replied. Unfortunately, saying the UNSC Army was superior to the marines is a real bad insult among the corps. And Kyle was rewarded with another blow to the jaw. One of the marines removed a combat knife and cut the upper portion of Kyle's left sleeve, exposing his bicep.

"I've never seen you before, meat, so what's your name?" the marine Commander barked.

"Kirk, James T" Kyle replied.

The marine with the knife cut Kyle's skin for every wrong answer he gave. Kyle could take the pain, he'd had worse. But he ended up with seven deep cuts before too long, blood trickled down his arm and started to drip of his hand. Kyle knew he could easily escape, provided these marines were really playing by the rules, he'd noticed they carried guns loaded with live ammo, their orders were more than likely: shoot to kill. So he'd just have to stall for as long as possible. Eventually one of them pulled a gun on Kyle and shot him, the slug grazed his already cut arm and Kyle bit back the pain. He had a chance and he was going to take it. As the leader berated his subordinate for shooting Kyle, he broke his restraints and leaped forward at the leader, sending him into the side of the prefab cubicle, tearing through the fabric and knocking out one of the support poles, causing it to cave in. the marine Commander landed in the dirt and Kyle punched his lights out, stood up and kicked him in the side and spit blood at his feet before sprinting off into the woods. Bullets whizzed past Kyle as he kept on running at top speed. He'd been striped of his helmet and vest which meant there was no way for him to hail blue team. He finally slumped against the tree and noticed his left had was all red, covered in his blood. Kyle tore part of his right sleeve away and tied it around his wound, which was quite large with the gunshot wound now factored in. he herd a rustle of the bushes next to him and searched around for anything he could use as a weapon, finding only a rock, not as jagged as the one he'd used against the ODST but enough to knock him out cold. But the rustling stopped. Followed by a high pitched, six note tune, the one the Spartans taught to him last month. He quickly remembered the countersign and spoke it low enough that only a Spartan's advanced hearing would pick up.

"All out in the free, we're all free"

A Spartan clad in a bodysuit emerged from the trees, followed by four others. A fifth dropped down from the trees and landed next to Kyle.

"Well you saved us the trouble of having to come get you" John said as he helped Kyle to his feet, then noticed his bloody hand and makeshift dressing. And his his swollen cheek.

"What did they do to you?" Kelly asked.

"Nothing too bad" Kyle replied "I was enjoying toying with them". He tried to brighten the mood, which worked. Fred came over and put a hand on Kyle's shoulder.

"If you could take that kind of punishment from tango, then you're defiantly one of us" he said.


	5. Chapter 5: memoral

**Message from the general**: Apologies for the shortness of this one, but I wanted to do a sort of tribute because today's December 7

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 5: memorial **

November 27, 2525

location: chi ceti system, UNSC destroyer _Commonwealth_

Sam was dead, that's all Kyle could think about as he sat on that bunk. It was the first objective he'd failed at, even though it was his own personal goal. He took his death pretty hard, when he read _the fall of Reach _Kyle had originally thought "_wow, what a bad twist of fate"_. Now, he was crying for that same person, someone he actually knew, someone who'd been a friend to him when he had none. He looked over at Kelly who was sitting next to him, more like leaning. He removed the gauntlet of his right hand and wiped a tear away from his eye. He then put the same arm around Kelly, she must have been feeling more awful than Kyle was, having known Sam for much longer. His mind was in a daze as his hand wandered to the side of her head, he could feel little hair fibers start to force their way in. Kelly would bee happy to hear that, providing she was still awake. Kyle finally noticed that Kelly had drifted off to sleep. He wondered how anyone could sleep inside the bulky armor but Kyle started to notice how indistinguishable the armor was from his body. The hydrostatic gel provided extra comfort with its ability to regulate temperature. He couldn't lean back so he was forced to stay in a ridged position, the armor detected this and initiated a lockdown of his upper body and lowered the hydrostatic gel pressure to allow Kyle to wiggle his body around inside the armor. John had already left for the bridge to deliver a report to the Captain, and the other Spartans wouldn't be retrieved for several hours so Kyle could afford a little sleep. He closed his eyes but only saw the image of Sam getting shot over and over again in his dreams, like it had been burned into his mind. He finally woke up in the same position as before, but someone else was in the room. Across from him were three other Spartans who just noticed Kyle stir.

"I herd what happened" one of them said. Kyle recognized the voice, it was Jai.

"What were they like?" Adriana asked "the covenant I mean?"

"I don't want to talk about it" said Kyle.

"Look, Kyle, I know he was your friend and all, but you're going to have to get over this. There's a war now" said Jai. "I get that you're new and you don't know how to look past your feelings to see the big picture. That's something you're gonna have to accept, loosing people".

"Leave him alone" Kelly growled from next to Kyle, their conversation having woke her. "If we want to grieve for Sam then let us do it, don't come barging in here, Jai."

"Whatever, Kelly" Jai snapped, he collected gray team and moved to another section of the bunk room. Kelly stood up and retrieved her helmet, snapped it back on and retrieved Kyle's.

"Here" she said as she handed it to Kyle.

"You got some kind of history with Jai?" Kyle asked as he held his helmet.

"Its a long story" said Kelly "I made fun of him for constantly running away, when I started to get used to all this. When Sam was still... Kyle, what happens now?"

"We're going to avenge him" Kyle said as he stared into his faceplate "we're going to avenge all of them". The covenant were no longer just some foe in a videogame, they were real, they were ruthless and had killed thousands, including his friend. Kyle wouldn't rest until they were dead


	6. Chapter 6: good or bad holiday?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 6: good or bad holiday?**

December 24, 2525

location: Epsilon Eridani system, Reach- old titanium mine

With the damage to the _Commonwealth_ so extreme, they were barely able to get the slipspace engines in working order. It took the frigate several weeks to return to Reach and they landed yesterday. Kyle was surprised at the date when he emerged from cryo, it was practically Christmas. But there was no holiday cheer among the Spartans, they probably didn't lord Christmas over them during training. It made Kyle's already foul mood worse as he sat in the new bunk room inside one of the mine sections, rock face for ceiling and walls. Some of the Spartans spent their time in the MJOLNIR armor while others, including Kyle preferred to be out of it. Kyle did find it comfortable but bulky sometimes, not to mention he preferred the memory foam contours of his bunk to the matted material over the MJOLNIR's gel layer, pressing against him. He decided to see Doctor Halsey who made herself scarce since they were revived from cryo, Kyle had also checked the _Commonwealth's_ logs and Halsey logged zero hours in cryo for the whole sortie. He made his way through the rock until he got to the areas that looked more like a bunker, made from instacrete. He located her office and knocked once.

"Come in" he herd her say. Kyle opened the door and his boots crunched one of many Styrofoam cups that littered the floor. A cluster of boxes and papers were also in the room, Halsey packing large stacks into the boxes.

"Going somewhere?" Kyle asked.

"They're shutting me down" Halsey said "the next class of Spartan IIs has been canceled and this facility is being converted by ONI. The original training facilities are being repurposed for marine recruits. All my funding has been rerouted and I'm being buried at a different facility until the new one comes online. The thirty three of you are all we have to fight the covenant".

Something in Kyle's gut told him she was concealing the truth, sure the thought of having any future Spartans was not likely with the war now, but it wouldn't be enough to burn her out like this. Halsey continued to load some papers but her foot slipped on one on the floor and she nearly fell were it not for Kyle reacting, catching her. He set her into her chair and she reached for another Styrofoam cup, half full.

"Doctor, staying up through a slipspace journey isn't healthy" said Kyle "I looked up the records, you didn't use the freezer from the time we left Reach until we returned".

She looked up at Kyle and smiled as she took a drink. "Give me your hand".

Kyle complied and Halsey set his palm over her abdomen, a move that made Kyle feel awkward. But his feeling changed to surprise as he felt something, coming from inside Halsey's abdomen, moving.

"Cryo isn't exactly recommended for women in my condition" said Halsey.

"Holy crap" Kyle muttered slowly "how... how long?"

"The baby's four months along" said Halsey "at least I have one good thing to look forward to". She prepared to take another drink from her cup but Kyle snatched it away, crushed it and dropped it into the waste basket.

"Drinking that is also unhealthy, tea from now on" Kyle said.

Halsey smiled. "If only Jacob were here to see this" she chuckled.

"Jacob!?" As in "Jacob Keyes!?" Kyle asked "he's the father!?"

"Yes" Halsey replied.

"I knew you were her mother!" Kyle said in surprise.

"Her!?" Said Halsey "so it is a girl".

"Sorry, I guess I ruined the surprise of it all" Kyle said.

"Its ok" Halsey said "you probably just gave me perhaps one of the best Christmas gifts I could ask for".

Kyle smiled. "I thought you'd forgot Christmas in this century".

"A lot of people still celebrate it" said Halsey "I wish I could give you a proper gift".

She handed Kyle a piece of paper, dictating that Kyle was being assigned to a destroyer heading for the front lines. He shipped out tomorrow, Christmas day.

"Sorry" she muttered "but the Covenant have stepped up their attacks, three colonies have been hit and we need you out there ASAP. Several Spartans ship out tonight, John and Kelly included. I figured you'd want to say goodbye".

"Thanks for telling me" said Kyle.

"Before you leave, I wanted to say something" Halsey started "you're ready, ready for anything you might face. You've come a long way from that teenager who showed up on that station 9 months ago. You've made yourself into something greater, and you'll do great things in the coming months and years".

"Thank you, doctor" said Kyle as he left.

"And, Kyle" Halsey called out as he reached the door "merry Christmas".

--

"_coming months and years"._ Halsey's words stuck in Kyle's head. "_Face it, Kyle. You're never going home"_ he told himself.

"Hey, Kyle" said Kelly as she pulled up a chair next to Kyle's bunk "did you get your assignment?"

"Yeah, I ship out on board the UNSC _Misciasci _tomorrow, some Christmas present.

"Christmas?" Kelly asked.

"Its nothing" Kyle replied "you probably for got it a long time ago. I should probably let you get some rest since you're shipping out in a few hours".

"But I actually..." Kelly started before Kyle rolled over. She wanted to brighten his foul mood but didn't get the chance before he fell asleep.

* * *

December 25, 2525

location: Epsilon Eridani system, Reach- old titanium mine

Kyle awoke the next morning, his first Christmas since arriving. He was surprised to find a small brown parcel under his bed. Opening it, a photo glided out along with a note. It was the one Linda took of Kyle while he was still in the infirmary for his injuries. Him, Sam, John and Kelly. Kyle thought it had been Linda who gave it to him but he was proved otherwise by the letter which he read next.

_Not all of us have forgotten what Christmas is. I'd recommend you put the photo in that bag of yours. There's a neat little compartment in the MJOLNIR armor that I found, should fit it nicely. This way, it'll be like we're all there with you. Merry Christmas, Kyle._

_-Kelly_

Kyle couldn't stop smiling as he reread the letter, it was nice to know he had a true friend looking out for him. He got up and removed the leather bag he kept hidden under his pillow, unzipped it and slid the photo in, like Kelly recommended. Kyle then proceeded over to his armor and began putting it on. After the forty five minute process he was armored up and now stood nearly seven feet tall. He picked up his bag and began to search for that rumored armored compartment, only to have it open on its own after the armored detected his request through the neural lace. The bag was a perfect fit as he snapped the extendable plate back into place on his thigh. Turning toward the door, Kyle wondered if he'd ever end up seeing Kelly or the others, even Reach again. He proceeded to the surface where a few transport hogs were parked to drive the remaining Spartans to the launchpads. After arriving, Kyle got quite a few heads turned in his direction, none of them having ever seen a fully armored Spartan before, no one had at this point. Kyle was ushered to a pelican that was reserved to take him and only him up to the destroyer. On the way up, Kyle could see multiple battlegroups preparing for sortie to the outer colonies. His ship came into view, the UNSC _Misciasci_. Home for now. After he docked, Kyle stepped out to find the Captain himself waiting for him.

"This is perhaps the best damned Xmas gift I'd ever hoped to get" the Captain said under his breath, not low enough for a Spartan to hear. "W-what's you name?" He asked.

"Spartan-091" Kyle replied "reporting for duty".


	7. Chapter 7: glassing

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 7: glassing**

March 10, 2526

location: planet Biko- Durban

Private Stacker raced for the last pelican preparing to evacuate the city of Durban, the largest on the outer colony of Biko. The Covenant launched a full assault on the planet and the marines got their first taste in combat with them. Mostly against these vulture headed creatures and some small squat ones with pointy harnesses. But some reports indicated that an entire marine squad was killed when they encountered another alien, directing the smaller ones. The space battle wasn't fairing any better, that's when command ordered a full retreat. After they'd made sure as many civilians as possible were evacuated. Stacker's squad had been ambushed by dozens of the squat aliens, he watched in horror as they literally tore the other marines to pieces. Then he bolted on foot for the pelican their Sergeant was taking them to. He could see it in sight but didn't get close enough as one of the vulture aliens jumped him and sliced his arm with a pink crystal shard it was holding. The pain was too much and Stacker dropped his weapon, the pink shard was embedded in his forearm, then it exploded spraying Stacker's face with his own blood. He doubled over and the alien jumped on top of him, it looked like it was preparing to bite off his head. Suddenly, the creature's head exploded and a large shadow was cast over Stacker. He saw who it belonged to, a large person dressed in green armor that looked more like a cross between an EVA and an ODST body suit, armed with an M7. It reached out a hand and Stacker took it.

"Lets go, marine" it said in a human voice.

The soldier helped Stacker all the way to the pelican and helped him aboard. The two of them were all that made it aboard before the pelican pilot was forced to lift off and return to orbit.

"Hold still" the armored soldier said as he began examining the arm. The energy cutlass had caused a lot of damage to his arm, he'd need several weeks of reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation before he'd gain full functionality back.

"I never wanted to do this" the marine said "I just joined for college money, thought I'd probably fight a bunch of insurrectionists, not this. What's your story, you some kind of ODST?"

He didn't reply as he finished filling his arm with biofoam and injected him with a sedative so he wouldn't see what happened next. As he eyelids drooped, Stacker saw the armored figure walk to the back of the dropship and start to look out the small window built into the aft ramp of the pelican. He reached up and removed his helmet, Stacker was surprised, it was a teenager in that armor. Younger than himself. Stacker didn't have time to ponder as the sedative took hold and he lost consciousness.

18 year old Kyle-091 stared out the window at the planet below as it slowly grew smaller. It was one year to the day that he ended up in the Halo universe. One year since he'd became a Spartan. One year since Harvest. This was Kyle's first official ground operation, the first battle the _Misciasci_ tried to get to had already been lost before they emerged from slipspace. They changed course for Biko figuring it was going to be hit next. A full battle was in progress by the time Kyle was yanked from cryo and sent down. But didn't arrive in time to help, instead had to protect evacuating troops from jackals and grunts, neither alien had earned their monikers yet. The pelican docked with the _Misciasci_ and a med team arrived for the marine he'd rescued. After snapping his helmet back on, Kyle was then ordered to report to the bridge. Upon arriving he found Captain Morrison taking a long look out the viewport as the Covenant ships sped past the dead hulks of UNSC ships. Swarming around Biko like a school of fish.

"Spartan, we're not leaving yet" said Morrison "we've been ordered to remain behind as long as possible to document this. No one has seen the process the Covenant use to destroy a planet".

Kyle hadn't either, so he stayed and watched as the Covenant ships began sweeping across the planet in lines, starting from the poles and moving south with each pass. Every pass, the Covenant ships spewed fiery plasma across the surface of Biko, incinerating and melting plains of grass, forests, oceans and people. Innocent civilians the UNSC failed to evacuate in time. Feeds from remote probes on the surface were patched into bridge monitors and Kyle got a first hand look of the conditions on the surface. Fire raged everywhere and soot from the plasma impacts was starting to block out the sun. fierce winds raged, rock and sand bubbled into molten glass. Then there were the cites that hadn't been hit by the Covenant, cities that hadn't been evacuated, cities that still held people. Kyle could only watch for a few seconds before looking away. He couldn't take it any longer so he left the bridge. As he stood in the corridor he felt the ship accelerate into slipspace, having gathered enough valuable data on the Covenant glassing process.

"Valuable" Kyle muttered. It wasn't right for them to have to stay behind and watch. All the UNSC needed was to look at the other colonies that had been hit to know that glassing worked. No one survived. Kyle saw a look in the captain's eyes, he was impressed by the covenant's ability to destroy an entire planet. It sickened Kyle to think he once thought that way. This wasn't a world in videogames or books anymore, it was real and Kyle got his first true taste of it. Swallowing up all the bad feelings inside, he willed them away and continued toward the cryo chamber. To sleep until they needed them for the next battle, wherever that was.


	8. Chapter 8: runaway train

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 8: runaway train**

June 10, 2527

location: Epsilon Eridani system, Reach- UNSC military complex

Kyle had been waiting for this moment for two weeks, ever since he got his orders that recalled him to Reach. It had been a year and a half since he left and it was great to be back. He was decked out in his MJOLNIR armor as he was escorted through the halls, toward a briefing room. In only two years the Spartans were starting to become quite the topic for scuttlebutt on the front lines. Kyle had fought in over 25 engagements during his tenure on the _Misciasci_, all of them lost when the Covenant glassed those worlds, destroyed the orbital instillations and easily swept aside any UNSC force that stood in its way. One thing brightened Kyle's spirits as he walked into the briefing room, standing in there was most of blue team. John, Linda and Kelly. Kelly did the new Spartan smile gesture that had been developed now that the Spartans had unanimously adopted staying in their armor. Kyle had only been told about it when he met up with Cassandra on a mission a year ago. So he returned the gesture. Suddenly the main door opened and the Spartans saluted as Admiral Stanforth entered and took his position at a podium at the other end of the room, positioned next to a holoemitter.

"At ease" said Stanforth "we need to make this quick. You leave in 20 minutes aboard the _Misciasci"._

A holographic image of a UNSC destroyer appeared, ship schematics and technical details were also put up.

"This ship was formally the UNSC _Origami_, a destroyer that defected to the URF during the Eridanus rebellion" Stanforth started. "Its been sighted only a handful of times over the last fifteen years, mainly because the rebels lack the proper facilities to keep a ship of that size in working shape. Recently, the ship attacked the frigate _Scranton_ and kidnapped a VIP that was on board. Its imperative the VIP be recovered and extracted back to UNSC space. Am I clear?"

"Crystal, sir" all four Spartans said in unison.

"You'll receive further mission details in transit" said Stanforth "time is of the essence, dismissed".

* * *

June 14, 2527

location: UNSC destroyer _Misciasci_ en route to hydra system

It was late at night as Kyle sat in his bunk, without his armor on. In a few hours it would be June 15, his twentieth birthday. This day served as a reminder of the years that ticked by since his arrival. Were he on his Earth, he'd been in college by now, or more likely on Paris island having been sent there by his father. Kyle often wondered how he'd take seeing Kyle like this, a soldier. His pondering was interrupted by Kelly who squatted next to his bunk, still in her armor. She did however take off her helmet and Kyle was surprised at how she'd changed. Kelly now had a full head of brown hair which she kept cropped short, and like Kyle's, it was slightly over regulation.

"I was thinking about turning it back to blue" Kelly said when she caught him starring "what do you think?"

"Leave it" Kyle said "I like you with brown". He was really happy to see her and the others again. It had been tough on his own, he was occasionally harassed by the ship's complement of ODSTs. Now they were afraid to go near him due to blue team's presence. "I never did thank you for the picture".

"Don't mention it" said Kelly "I wish Fred could have been here though. His ship had slipspace problems on the return to Reach."

"We can handle it" said Kyle. He was starting to act more like a Spartan, none of the awkward feelings about being in the Halo universe had troubled him for some time. He was used to his new life and friends. Kyle still had the occasional dream about home. Over time he learned to suppress those feelings.

"You want a hand with your armor?" Kelly asked "we have to get ready soon."

"Thanks" Kyle said as he got out of his bunk, and prepared to dive headfirst into another battle.

* * *

June 15, 2527

location: hydra system, rebel freighter

Like the Eridanus mission, blue team had stowed away in a crate of supplies hopefully bound for the _Origami_. As they waited in silence, Kyle assessed his gear stowed in his dropbag, it was mostly an infiltration mission so he was armed with dual M7S, a combat knife and garrote wire. He also had a portable lockbreaker and magnesium-phosphorus powder to burn through any door they might encounter. Loading all of it into the pack he was wearing, Kyle then slapped magazines into his sub machine guns and made sure the silencers were properly threaded. Kelly placed a hand on his shoulder to signal to him. She then made hand gestures to request a private COM. Kyle complied and synced his COM up with Kelly, Linda and John.

"Here's the plan" John started "ONI believes the destroyer is crewed by a skeleton staff which means staying hidden will be easier, downside is we need to capture one of the crew and get him to talk. Blue-two, blue-four. You'll handle that end."

Kyle and Kelly winked their acknowledgment lights green.

"Blue-three and I will plant the transponder so the _Misciasci _can assault _Origami" _said John "once that's done we'll meet up at the location the rebels are holding the VIP."

--

An hour later the crate was brought aboard the_ Origami_ and the Spartans disembarked, careful to stay in the shadowy parts of the cargo bay. When they reached a maintenance hatch, John issued hand signals for Kelly and Kyle to use it. The pair entered the hatch and proceeded through it until Kelly winked her light red for a moment. Kyle turned back and Kelly was pointing at, a fiberoptic line. Kyle removed a small datapad and handed it to Kelly who used the software to hack the ships networks.

"I've isolated our COM channel" said Kelly we're free to use the COM."

"Good" Kyle muttered. "How about the VIP?"

"Can't access any of the internal security feeds, looks like we're doing it the hard way" Kelly said.

"Alright, this way" said Kyle. He noticed a grate in the floor that happened to drop into a maintenance locker. Kyle pried the grate off and dove through first, followed by Kelly. Once the room was swept, Kyle snaked a fiberoptic probe under the door and spotted someone in the corridor.

"Kelly, I need a rabbit" said Kyle.

"Happy to oblige" she replied as she moved toward the door. Kyle checked the probe again and then gave her the go. Kelly moved into the corridor just as the rebel Kyle spotted turned the corner. She moved up to the corner, activated her external speakers and whistled. The rebel looked back and caught a glimpse of Kelly as she ran back for the storage locker. The rebel caught her enter the room and he tried to follow, but was met by the barrel of Kyle's gun.

"Lets go" Kyle said as he grabbed a fistful of the man's uniform and pulled him into the room. Kelly kicked the door shut as Kyle pushed the guy up against the wall.

"don't hurt me" the rebel pleaded.

"That all depends on whether or not you answer my questions" Kyle said as he pressed his gun into one of the guy's shoulder joints. "Where's the man you captured from the _Scranton?"_

"he's in the bring on deck three" the man blurted "please don't kill me."

"Who said I would kill you" Kyle said as he smacked his weapon on the guy's temple. Dropping him, Kelly came over, tied and gaged him, the tossed him in a corner before moving out. They made their way silently through the ship until arriving on deck three. Two rebels stood guard outside the room, but were dispatched by John and Linda as they approached from the other side of the hall. Kyle spread the magnesium-phosphorus around the door lock and lit it. A bright light filled the small space as the chemicals burned their way through. After a minute John forced the door open and he and Linda entered, returning with a man dressed in an orange prison jumper. Kyle drew his combat knife and cut the man's restraints.

"Thanks" he muttered after he removed the tape covering his mouth.

"You know how to use one of these?" John asked as he handed the VIP an M6D. The VIP took it, ejected the clip, inspected it, slapped it back in and puled the slide back.

"Stick close" Kyle said to him as they moved down the hall to a nearby maintenance hatch, but they didn't get far before they felt a shudder throughout out the ship.

"The MAC gun" Kyle muttered.

"Who the hell are they shooting?" Kelly asked.

"The only sizable target in system..." Linda started.

"We have to get to the bridge" said John "now!".

"What's going on?" The VIP asked.

"Blue-three, get him to the cargo bay and back in the crate" John ordered.

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on" the VIP demanded.

"We were supposed to trigger a beacon on board the _Origami_ that would alert our destroyer to its position. We were then supposed to blow ourselves out of the ship in a cargo container. Our destroyer would handle the _Origami_ while they send a dropship for us" John explained.

"_Attention UNSC special forces team"_ said a voice over the intercom._ "I want you to direct your attention to the nearest monitor in your section."_

Blue team looked up at a monitor that was just a few feet away, on it was the feed from one of the _Origami'_s external cameras. The _Misciasci_ hung dead in space, she'd been holed by a MAC slug.

"_My missiles are trained on your ship. If you don't surrender in the next ten minutes I will destroy it. Your time starts, now."_

"I'm sorry, son" said the VIP "we'll have to pack it in on this one."

"Not necessarily" said John "blue-four, you're bait for this."

Kyle shrugged and listened to John's instructions.

--

"you ready?" Kyle asked the VIP.

"I guess" he replied as he walked out into the corridor first, skidded his pistol across the floor and raised his hands. Kyle emerged next and tossed his weapons on the ground. The rebel soldiers approached cautiously and tossed Kyle a set of restraints, which he bolted on his hands. They then moved the Spartan and the VIP to the bridge where the rebel Captain was waiting. The Misciasci still drifted outside the forward viewport.

"Change course" said the Captain. "A lone Spartan. Surprised we've herd of you?"

"Not really" Kyle replied "I trust my reputation has you quite scared."

"That's where you're wrong, we've seen that you Spartans are just as vulnerable to the same pressures as any other human."

"You missed something" said Kyle.

"Oh?"

"Spartans don't travel alone."

At that, Kyle broke his restraints and the VIP hit the deck as John, Kelly and Linda came through the ceiling of the bridge, via the maintenance corridor directly above it. Linda was lucky enough to land on one guard. As Kyle caught a pistol Kelly tossed him, he prepared to shoot the rebel Captain, but he raised a remote and activated something on it before Kyle shot his hand. The other guards had been subdued and the VIP was uninjured. Kyle grabbed him by the collar and yanked him up.

"What did you do?" Kyle barked.

The rebel Captain simply bit down hard on his teeth and Kyle realized too late what he was doing. The rebel started to convulse and Kyle dropped his body just as he seized up and died.

"Cyanide" Kyle muttered.

"Spartan, over here" the VIP called to him. Kyle saw he was seated at the helm, trying to access navigational control.

"Can you tell what he did?" John asked.

The VIP simply pointed out the window at the rapidly approaching planet, one of two that were inhabited in this system.

"Our course is ballistic, we're going to burn up" said the VIP "that guy also just about locked down every system on the ship, including the escape pods."

"We'll just have to bail out in the crate" said John.

"No good" said Linda who inspected the screens "they've been decompressed to increase our momentum, in fact multiple sections are being decompressed to lighten our mass. The MAC slugs have been jettisoned as well."

"Not all the sections have been decompressed" said Kyle as he pointed to a compartment not far from the bridge, the hangar.

"We can still make it there" said Kelly.

"Lets move" John said as he went over to the VIP, picked him up out of his chair and threw him over his shoulder. "No offense, but we need to move quickly."

The VIP didn't protest as they ran through the halls of the Origami to the nearest elevator, it was a risk but they had to take it if they were going to get off the ship in time. Kelly and Linda swept the hangar bay when they arrived, but they had only a few seconds to get inside a pelican as the rush of air being sucked out hit the bay. Once safely inside, Kyle made his way into the cockpit and powered up the engines. John came in and took the copilot's seat.

"The docking clamps are still engaged" said John "we're not going anywhere."

We'll just have to break free said Kyle as he fed power into the engines and tried thrusting forward, but John hit the override and the engines cooled down.

"We can't risk it" he said "the clamps are right on the wings."

"I'll go out and disconnect them manually" said Kelly.

"No time" Kyle said as he started to feel vibrations in his seat. Accessing the ship's external cameras, Kyle saw they were indeed entering the atmosphere. Suddenly, an idea came on in Kyle's head, but it was risky.

"Blue-one, I think I got something."

"Well?"

"How much heat can these pelicans take?"

"Just over reentry limit" Kelly chimed in "what are you planning?"

"Weld deck plates over the view ports, quick" Kyle said. "You better get in back" he told John "its bound to get hot in here."

"No way, we're in it together."

"Fair enough" said Kyle. He couldn't order John because they were both still the same rank. Kyle could see sparks from the small window built into the cockpit door, but it was covered up as Linda welded one of the deck plates over it.

"We're set back here, blue-one" Kelly reported.

Hang on John ordered as the vibrations started to increase. Several power conduits exploded and soon the bay was filled with fire. The inner door started to twist and the metal literally was bubbling. Eventually the metal holding the clamps to the ceiling weakened enough for Kyle to break free, they clamps lost power immediately and their magnets released, allowing the pelican to fly free. Kyle knew they had only seconds left before structural collapse so he hit the engines on full and rammed the weakened pressure door. The airlock was ablaze in fire as Kyle made it through what was left of it and pushed through the partly disintegrated outer doors. The intense heat shattered the cockpit windscreen and fire filled the cockpit, alarms inside Kyle's MJOLNIR armor blared as his servos tried to compensate. The smell of boiling hydrostatic gel made Kyle dizzy as he fought the joystick to keep the dropship on a level decent. The ground was coming at them and he could see John trying to engage the braking thrusters, but most of the controls were melted. Kyle could see the ground through the shattered glass as they raced toward it. For some reason, Kyle blacked out because when he came to he didn't have his helmet on, and he was lying on his back, staring at the sky. He tried to sit up but a hand pushed him back.

"Lie still" Kelly said as she knelt next to him "I haven't finished with your head."

"What happened?"

"We crashed. Me, Linda and the VIP were fine but you and John got banged up. He's still out of it."

Kyle could feel blood trickle down the side of his head and Kelly stitching the wound shut with bio stitches, designed to dissolve after the wound had healed. She finished, cleaned the area around his wound and handed Kyle his helmet. He snapped it on and diagnostics ran, his armor was scorched in some places and his hydrostatic gel system lost a small amount of the gel, but was otherwise fine. Linda was nearby, signaling a searching pelican with green smoke. The pelican was lying in the dirt in the middle of the field, smoke billowing from its engines. He also spotted the VIP next to John.

"That was quick thinking, riding the ship down until the clamps fell apart" Kelly commented.

"What exactly happened?" Kyle asked "I think I blacked out half way."

"You were unconscious when we found you" Kelly explained "John was barely awake, he managed to activate the breaking engines before it was too late, made a not so rough landing for the rest of us."

Kelly and Kyle helped carry John to the pelican as it landed to retrieve them. They found out from the pilot that the Misciasci wasn't to badly damaged and they would be getting underway as soon as they docked.

"Thanks for the rescue" the VIP said to them "I owe your unit my life."

"We were just doing our job, sir" said Kyle as he sat back in his seat, Kelly took the one next to him and requested a private COM. He opened a channel and turned to face her.

"Happy birthday" she whispered.

Kyle chuckled. "I'm surprised you remembered."

"This one will be one to remember, I'll bet" Kelly "I'm curious, just how old are you?"

"Twenty" Kyle replied.

"I always thought you were a little older" Kelly said.

Kyle smiled and leaned back, it was nice to know someone remembered his birthday.

* * *

June 19, 2527

location: Epsilon Eridani system, Reach- UNSC military complex

The Spartans had just finished their debriefing by admiral Stanforth when a marine courier handed a letter to John. He opened it and read the message, even though he was still in his MJOLNIR armor, the others could read his movements, and could tell it startled him.

"What is it?" Kyle asked.

John simply handed the letter to him and Kyle read it with Kelly and Linda.

**Petty Officer Second Class John-117 is hereby promoted to the rank of Master Chief Petty Officer, effective immediately.**

_You demonstrated some good leadership skills, son. Not to mention saved our skins with your friend in piloting that dropship down. You deserved this_

_Vice Admiral Terrance Hood_

"Wait, the VIP was lord hood!?" Kyle said in disbelief.

"Wow, congratulations... Master Chief" Kelly said as she put her hand on John's shoulder.

John smiled from inside his helmet as did Kyle, he finally found out how John got promoted in the first place.

"I guess we all salute you from now on" said Kyle as he snapped one off, Kelly and Linda doing the same. John looked over at them and returned the salute.


	9. Chapter 9: field trip

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 9: field trip**

December 17, 2530

location: Epsilon Eridani system, Reach, UNSC military complex

Most of the Spartans had been recalled, save gray team and a few others, without explanation. The Master Chief had received a briefing on something but wouldn't share with the rest of the Spartans. Eventually he called Kyle over to the back of the bunk room they'd been assigned.

"Chief, what's going on?" Kyle asked "why the sudden recall?"

"Command is launching two major ops in the next few weeks. I want you to command the team for the second mission."

"What exactly is it?" Kyle asked.

"The Covenant... they're on Harvest, again" the Chief muttered.

"What? Why the hell are they interested in the planet, it was glassed six years ago?"

"I don't know why but a UNSC recon picket engaged a Covenant ship in orbit, it was destroyed and a Covenant troop presence was detected on the surface. FLEETCOM wants some Spartans out there ASAP, I want you to lead the team."

"Which team am I commanding?" Kyle asked.

"None of them, I want you to handpick from who we have available. Blue team is with me on the first op so they're off limits. The team needs to consist of you and four others, so choose wisely."

"Understood, Chief" Kyle said as John handed him a file folder containing all the mission details.

"You leave tomorrow" said the Chief "good luck out there."

He extended his gauntleted hand and Kyle took it.

"Same to you" Kyle replied.

--

Kyle looked over who was available and had narrowed it down to four choices. It was a mixed group, two from red team and two from green. All of the Spartans were indistinguishable while they wore MJOLNIR armor, but Kyle could tell who everyone was either through IFF or from their movements and actions. The first two on his list were Cassandra-076 and Maria-062. Cassandra, Kyle knew rather well from a few missions they did together a few years ago, Kyle hadn't seen Maria since they shipped out in 2525. Cassandra was a good scout, not fast like he and Kelly but was agile and quick on her feet. Maria was a sniper, nowhere near as accurate as Linda but good overall. The next two were Will-043 and Randall-015. Will was a heavy weapons specialist and Randall was sort of a jack of all trades. It was certainly a odd crew, but well suited for the job. He pinged their COMs and they all came over to him.

"Listen up" Kyle started "the Chief put me in charge of putting together a team to take to Harvest to determine a new Covenant presence there. I've selected the four of you to accompany me. Questions?"

"Yeah" Randall said "when do we go? I'm eager to kick some Covenant ass."

"We're leaving tonight" said Kyle "so get your gear together and assemble at the motor pool in 30 minutes."

Kyle started to leave when Cassandra grabbed his shoulder.

"Where are you going then?" She asked.

"Just want to say bye to someone" Kyle replied as he went in search of Kelly, eventually finding her near the back of the room.

"I herd you're going on a mission" she said.

"Who's taking my spot on blue team?" Kyle asked.

"The Chief assigned James to fill in for you" Kelly said. "He's been feeling a bit weird about making two major changes, with Kurt taking Sam's spot and all."

"I'm sure you'll be fine" said Kyle.

"Hey, Kyle... make sure you come back alive, ok?" Kelly said.

"Its not going to be that bad" said Kyle "I'm defiantly coming back. Can't say the same for any sorry Covenant I see."

--

An hour later, Kyle sat with his new team in a pelican as it blasted away from Reach's surface. He watched as more destroyers and cruisers prepared to leave orbit to face the covenant on the front lines.

"You know, we're gonna need a name for our team" said Cassandra.

"Well you'll have plenty of time to think of one" said Kyle "its two months to Harvest."

"Sorry, but even I'm doing cryo on this one" said Cassandra.

"Then you better get cracking" Randall remarked.

"Is that her?" Maria asked as she spotted a ship out one of the portholes.

"That's it" said Will.

"Man... its huge!" Said Cassandra.

Kyle finally looked out the window at the ship they were approaching, Cassandra wasn't exaggerating it, the ship was monstrous. But it also gave Kyle the weirdest feeling of Deja vu as they approached the hangar door. Upon landing, Kyle collected his bag and filed off the dropship with the rest of his team, where he was in for a surprise. The whole bay was filled with troops, heavy armor and weapons, enough to fight a small war. One NCO came over to the Spartans.

"Welcome aboard, the Captain wants you in cryo right away, we're entering slipspace shortly."

"No meet and greet I take it?" Will asked.

"Its a long ride, the skipper figured you could use the rest" said the NCO "now follow me."

* * *

February 4, 2531

location: Epsilon Indi system, Harvest- UNSC _Spirit of Fire_

Captain James Cutter took a long hard look out the window of the bridge as three heavy dropships made their way from the carrier to the surface, loaded with valuable supplies for the firebase that was under construction on the surface.

"Serina, status?" Cutter asked.

On the small holotank built into the arm of his chair, a woman appeared. She was young, had long hair, clothing that looked less than military, but bore the ship's emblem on a patch on her shoulder.

"Standard Orbit Achieved, All systems normal" she reported.

"Prep for pod launches, bring weapon systems online" Cutter ordered.

"Expecting trouble Captain?" Serina asked.

"Harvest may be ours again but I don't think the Covenant appreciate that yet" Cutter said as he turned around and walked toward the plotting board. The bridge doors opened and another woman stepped in, her name was Dr Anders, a scientist that FLEETCOM ordered Cutter to bring along. She was the foremost expert on the Covenant, from what the UNSC had been able to gather about them. Cutter approached the plotting board and decided to get a status report. As he did, Serina appeared on the tactical board.

"Sergeant Forge, report!"

On the screen, a video link appeared. Sergeant John Forge was in his warthog from what Cutter could tell.

"_Definitely plenty of bad guys here, Captain"_ he reported. "_And they've found something in the ice!"_

"Damn it, that complicates our mission" said Cutter. He turned to face Dr Anders, "Anders, what have you got?"

"Captain, scans of the northern polar region show some interesting Covenant activity on the surface." She brought up a satellite photo of the area which blossomed into a 3D topographic map. "There's some kind of structure down there."

"What do you think they're looking for?" Serina asked.

"That's what we're here to find out" said Cutter. "We're to bring Alpha base to operational status and take control of that site."

"I'll get my equipment ready, Captain" said Anders as she went for the door.

"_Lady, there's NO way you're coming down here on the first bird!"_ Forge said over the transmission. The Captain wasn't surprised that Forge didn't want her down there, they hadn't gotten off on the right foot when she arrived aboard and Forge personally informed the Captain of his disapproval of having a civilian aboard ship. But Cutter wasn't in the mood for the noncom's opinion.

"Sergeant Forge, pull back to Alpha Base. I'm sending you some backup" Cutter ordered.

"_Roger that, Forge out."_

The transmission winked off and Cutter returned to the window.

"So, nothing too difficult then?" Serina asked.

Cutter sighed, "This might be the key to the whole war, Serina. It's worth the risk."

"Should I wake our special weapons package, Captain?"

"Go ahead, and I want them mustered and ready to drop with Dr Anders to alpha base, ASAP."

--

Deep in the bowls of the Spirit of Fire, inside one of the cryo theaters, five pods remained active. The techs needed Serina to enter a special authorization code before allowing them to proceed with revival. Once they did, the techs were in for a treat. Dr Anders had arrived to watch the procedure.

"So these are them?" She asked the tech at the console.

"Not payed to know who they are, ma'am" the tech replied.

The gases vented and the lids slowly rose. The pods contained three men and two women, all with incredibly pale skin. The first to regain consciousness was a blond haired man, he couldn't have been any older than 21. His companions soon woke up as well, the techs tried to assist them but they refused. Anders noticed they were all rather muscular and wore their hair short, but the blond one's hair was just over regulation. He also appeared to be the leader of this squad.

"What are you standing around for" he said "lets get something on". They started to file over to the lockers positioned on the wall and each pulled on a skin tight, black undersuit. The blond one looked over in her direction, finally noticing her presence in the room.

"See anything interesting?" He asked in a not to pleased mood. Anders simply left the room.

Kyle-091 returned to zipping up his undersuit, he wasn't accustom to members of the crew coming in and snooping around, just to get a look at what a Spartan looks like under all the armor.

"Problem?" Cassandra asked.

"Someone was spying on us as we got out" Kyle replied.

"Its just hero worship" said Maria "come on, lets grab our armor."

Kyle led the Spartans into an adjacent room where five sets of MJOLNIR Mk IV armor stood ridged in slots on the wall, a glass cover protecting each of them. This section along with the auxiliary cryo theater were under heavy guard from the moment the Spartans were ushered in there two months ago for the trip to Harvest. Each Spartan had to press their thumb to the pad next to the case that contained their individual armor. The doors swung open and allowed them access. Each of the Spartans assisted each other with their armor but the whole process still took close to a hour. After they were decked out they proceeded to one of the smaller briefing rooms. On the small holotank near the main screen, an AI appeared, as when he boarded the Spirit of Fire, Kyle got another sense of Deja vu.

"My name is Serina, I am the military advisory AI for the ship and ground side forces. The Captain asked me to make this briefing quick since you are needed ground side ASAP."

"That's fine" Kyle said.

The AI nodded and a topographic map appeared on the main display.

"This is the northern polar region" Serina started "it is also the focus for all Covenant ground side activity. Earlier scans reveal the presence of some kind of structure underneath the ice, the Captain believes that's why the Covenant are here, he wants that entire area under UNSC control. You are also to escort our resident civilian scientist to this structure once the area has been deemed secure."

"Sounds simple enough" Randall remarked.

"Lets not get overconfident" said Kyle. "Was there anything else?"

"No" Serina replied. "You are to report to the armory and then proceed directly to the hangar."

--

Randall let out a long whistle at the impressive array of weapons and gear in the armory. The Spartans went to town selecting gear and weapons, Kyle sticking with an M7, MA5B and an M6D. Will was the only one in the group who took a rocket launcher.

"Hey, take a look at these" said Cassandra as she lifted the lid off a crate, inside was several new rifles. Cassandra hefted one, they were black, had long barrels and a rack on the top with a scope mount. Cassandra found some magazines in an adjacent crate, slapped one in and inspected the ammo counter, 36 rounds total.

"I'll try one" said Maria as she hefted one of the new rifles. She pointed it at another crate and fired, the gun shot off a three round burst. "Hmm, no selector switch" she said upon inspecting the weapon.

"They're designed to be that way" said Serina as she materialized on the holotank in the armory. "Its called the battle rifle, it's recently been certified for field use."

"_I always thought it came in during Halo 2"_ Kyle thought to himself.

"I hate to rush your gun fest but the Captain wants you in the hangar" said Serina.

"Right" said Kyle "lets move out."

As they walked through the halls, Cassandra contacted Kyle on private COM. Sounding rather excited. "Kyle, I think I got a name for the team" she said as she transmitted a symbol to his HUD. A upside down U. Kyle racked his memory for what the symbol meant, it was familiar but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Its omega" Cassandra said after he failed to respond. "You know, the Greek alphabet."

"Oh, yeah" Kyle said "its catchy."

Kyle realized they had arrived in the hangar bay and so they set out across to two waiting pelicans. He saw the same woman from before, dressed in an arctic parka, talking with someone else. Kyle was able to listen in on their conversation.

"Forge doesn't think its safe for you to go down there yet. He's quite insistent" the man said.

"I can be quite insistent too, Captain. I can take care of myself" the scientist replied as she boarded one of the pelicans. Kyle and his team proceeded over to the second one but were met by the man who the scientist identified as the Captain. Kyle and the other Spartans immediately saluted.

"At ease" Cutter said. "Which one of you is in charge?"

"I am, sir" Kyle said as he stepped forward.

"What am I supposed to call your unit?" Cutter asked

"team omega, sir" Kyle replied.

"I'm sure Serina has brought you up to speed on what we learned. Your mission is to escort Dr Anders to that structure, if there is any sign of danger she is to be extracted on the double. Am I clear?"

"Crystal, sir" Kyle replied.

"Good luck then" said Cutter as he left. Kyle had his team file aboard the other pelican and both dropships left the _Spirit of Fire._ From the pelican, Kyle could see the wreckage of the fleet that engaged the Covenant six years prior. Led by Admiral Cole, he was able to defeat the covenant at the cost of two thirds of his ships, their remains now littered the space above Harvest. As the pelican descended, Kyle got a first had look at what was left of the surface. Fires raged and molten rock was running rampant through once lush green valleys. This all served as a grim reminder to Kyle, how Halsey never listened to his warnings. Kyle knew the blame for this whole was wasn't on his shoulders, but it felt like that. They left the destroyed landscape behind and soared over the arctic tundra. It was in the early evening and Epsilon Indi had set on the eastern horizon. The moon was high overhead and the whole scene seemed peaceful, at first. Suddenly, all hell broke loose when the first pelican containing Dr Anders was hit and began to loose altitude. Kyle tried to stand up but couldn't maintain his footing as the pilot engaged in evasive maneuvers, there were a series of thuds from outside the dropship which indicated the chaff and flares were being deployed. This told Kyle that a rookie was at the helm, were it an experience pilot, they would have known that covenant could see right through the countermeasures. Kyle magnetized his boots and made his way up to the cockpit, the pilot was young and was struggling to keep control.

"What's our status?" Kyle barked.

"I don't know" the pilot said "there was plasma fire and the other pelican got hit. I'm trying to avoid any of those damn banshees".

"Kyle!" Randall called out. He was leaning his head out the back of the dropship. I have the other pelican, looks like it crashed, there's also one hell of a battle going on down there.

"Set us down" Kyle ordered.

"Are you insane?!" The pilot cried out.

"If it was a banshee that took out the other pelican then we wouldn't be having this conversation, it was ground fire. So either you land this bird or I'll knock you out and do it myself!" Kyle barked.

The pilot leveled out and descended to a small ice shelf overlooking the main battlefield. He set down and allowed Kyle and is team to disembark. Kyle led his team to the edge where a battle between Covenant and UNSC forces was in full swing.

"Its a war zone down there" Will commented.

"If they want war, we'll give them war" Kyle said.


	10. Chapter 10: reclamation

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 10: reclamation**

February 4, 2531

location: Epsilon Indi system, Harvest- northern polar region

Sergeant Forge was in the process of rounding up the remaining patrols in the area when the Covenant launched a surprise ambush. He was pinned down with several other marines behind an overturned warthog as Covenant elite approached. The alien bastards weren't taking chances on this one, their force consisted mostly of elites and very few grunts, the Covenant wanted a nice clean defeat of the UNSC forces in this area. They didn't want their infantry weighed down with grunts that the UNSC forces could easily overpower. A small group of marines approached his squad, armed with the new BR55 attacked the elites head on. Forge could tell they were rookies, like most of the marines on board the _Spirit of Fire_.

"Fall back!" Forge called out in vein. The Covenant plasma rifles were always more powerful and they sliced through the foolhardy marines like they were nothing. Suddenly, rockets screeched into the approaching elites, killing four of them and forcing their Commander to order a retreat. Forge wondered why they would fall back in the face of only a couple of rockets, and he got his answer as two armored figures approached their position, each armed with assault rifles. Forge didn't recognize the armor but he had herd the stories from other marines, stories about armored figures with seemingly superhuman abilities. Never in his life did Forge imagine he'd get to see one, he always assumed it was a PTSD induced fantasy.

"You going to sit there and gawk all day, marine?" One of the figures asked.

Forge snapped out of his daze and rallied his remaining men. They charged with the two super soldiers against the retreating elites and cut down half of them before the rest were able to slip away. Some of Forge's men started to cheer at the fact they drove elites into a retreat. Forge turned to the two armored figures, they appeared to be conversing with one another but were obviously using their COM channel. Some of the marines couldn't help but stare, Forge herd their whispers and caught the name of the super soldiers: Spartan. Forge approached the two Spartans and put on a stern face.

"Sergeant, did you see a pelican crash near here about ten minutes ago?" One of the Spartans asked.

"Things have been crashing and burning for the past 30 minutes" Forge snapped. "Why?"

"You know about the civilian scientist that was on..."

"Don't tell me she was on that pelican!" Forge yelled. "I warned the Captain, and look what he does."

"Sergeant, get a grip" the other Spartan said. "We need to ascertain her position, can you help?"

"I can do better than that" said Forge. "Follow me."

"Randall?" One of the Spartans asked. "When is Cassandra going to be finished with the..."

He was cut off as two large thundering boom sounded and a smoke cloud rose nearby.

"Now" Randall replied.

Kyle let out a small chuckle as he motioned for Randall to follow Forge. They made it to several more overturned and destroyed vehicles raging from warthogs to hornets. Forge pointed to one warthog.

"That was mine, it has a SATCOM uplink we can use" he said as he went and prepared to flip the vehicle over. "Give me a hand."

Kyle proceeded over, grabbed hold of the crash cage and easily flipped the warthog upright. Forge gave Kyle a nod of impressment and climbed into the driver's seat, typing away on the dash computer.

"One of the conditions that Anders be allowed down is that she agreed to carry an emergency beacon Forge explained. We dropped several surveillance satellites in orbit, give me a minute to..." his voice drifted away as he began entering commands. "Got her!"

Kyle looked down at the screen and a green dot was overlayed on a map of the region, moving. But at a fairly fast rate.

"She's traveling in a vehicle" Randall suggested.

"But its not on a heading to alpha base" Forge pointed out.

Suddenly, Kyle's TEAMCOM became active, which gave them their answer.

"_Omega-one, its Cassandra. We found Anders' pelican, the marines with her didn't die in the crash. They all have plasma wounds."_

* * *

February 4, 2531

location: Epsilon Indi system, Harvest- Covenant outpost near relic site

Anders sat in the cell the Covenant tossed her into after they striped her of all her gear and anything in her pockets. Thankfully they didn't find the hidden beacon sewed into her jacket, she triggered it after the crash, when the Covenant stumbled across the wreckage, killed her marine escort and took her prisoner. Why they did it was another question altogether, Anders had read the reports, the only time the Covenant took a human prisoner was when they planned to execute him/her later for sport. For the first time in her life, Anders though she was going to die. She got down on her knees, put her palms together and silently began muttering a prayer.

--

Outside of the prison building, the main area of the outpost was made up of tents and a few hastily erected structures. One tent belonged to the company Commander, a zealot. He was in it as the Commander of the Covenant forces on Harvest visited him, he was taller than the zealot, around 8 feet. But this was no ordinary Sangheili, he wore a special type of gray armor, decorated with ornate symbols.

"Why did you call a retreat of our forces against something as pathetic as a human!?" he snarled.

"But, Arbiter" the zealot pleaded. "The humans had some kind of mechanized soldiers on the battlefield that..."

The zealot stopped short as The Arbiter thrust one of his plasma swords through the zealot's chest, having herd enough of the zealot's incompetence. But even The Arbiter was troubled by the zealot's last words, words that mentioned the mechanized soldiers that had been sighted. The Covenant first learned of the soldiers from the data recorder of one of their frigates that had been destroyed from within, by these soldiers. Again and again, more reports flowed in as the war progressed, they talked of these soldiers slaughtering countless numbers of Covenant troops. When the war was declared, the prophets selected him to be The Arbiter for this war, his original name had been Masha 'Brucalee but the code of The Arbiter demanded he simply use the title of Arbiter as his new name. He was formally a field criminal of brutal strength and was selected as Arbiter mainly because this was the first species the hierarchs had demanded the total extermination of. It sickened The Arbiter when he learned some of the things the humans had done, they had spread to hundreds of worlds and even had the audacity to give them names, they were worse than the Unggoy. They even mastered basic interstellar space flight, all of this was revolting to The Arbiter. He proceeded out of the tent and signaled two other Sangheili to dispose of the zealot's body. He then proceeded to one of the structures that had been set up as a detainment center, the one thing the zealot did right was the capture of an important human. As he entered the containment area, he caught sight of the human kneeling on the ground. This one was the female of the human species, The Arbiter recognized them from the many he'd killed previously. The human was muttering under her breath and her hands were pressed together and were positioned close to her mouth. The Arbiter removed a small device from his waist and pressed it against the side of his throat, it was a translator that had been programed with the human's language.

"What are you doing, human?" He asked.

Anders was surprised that the elite was speaking English. She glanced over at him on the other side of the energy barrier but quickly looked away, scared at his immense size.

"I said what are you doing!" He yelled.

"I'm praying to my god before you kill me" Anders replied. She didn't know what she said that pissed The Arbiter off because he deactivated the energy barrier, rushed into the cell, grabbed Anders by the throat and pinned her against the wall.

"How dare you!" He snarled. "That you creatures have the audacity to claim you have a god, you sicken me even further! You are a disease that deserves to be cleansed from this galaxy. I would gladly kill you now, but my leaders wish to learn more from you, such as the the location of your wretched species' home planet."

Anders was paralyzed with fear as the elite squeezed her windpipe, she truly thought this was going to be it, but the elite set her down as he turned to face the ultra who interrupted him. This particular ultra had been appointed as the new Commander of the outpost now that the zealot was dead. The Arbiter let Anders go and exited the cell, re enabled the forcefield and turned to face the ultra. But little did eh know, his translator was still active, and broadcasting for Anders to hear.

"What is it?" The Arbiter asked.

"Sir, the zealot was correct in his assumption, the infection has defiled the relic."

"Have you informed the holy one?"

"The moment we were aware of the tainted relic. He has sent orders commanding that you destroy the relic immediately, he also wants the human brought to his stealth cruiser and to begin withdrawing our troops."

The Arbiter nodded, he was extremely devoted to the prophets and would follow any order as if it came from the Forerunners themselves. But he was relishing the idea of killing the human female, perhaps the prophet would allow him the honor after all useful information was extracted from her. The Arbiter suddenly herd an explosion and the floor vibrated along with it. He ran with the ultra out of the containment center to find most of the base ablaze, he could see human craft in a low flightpath over the outpost, dropping their explosive weapons upon them. He rallied what troops were still standing and had them sure up the perimeter defenses, expecting the humans to make a foolhardy charge against their outpost. But there were no humans in sight and their aircraft continued to attack, soon however they would be forced into retreat as their banshees arrived. He turned back to the center of the base and that' when he realized the true purpose of the human's plan.

--

Kyle sat in the back of a pelican with the rest of team omega and Sergeant Forge touched down near the structure that was emitting Anders' beacon. Kyle had to hope that omega could get in and get out before the pelicans, hornets and shortswords ran out of ordnance, or the Covenant discovered their presence, or both. As the ramp lowered, he signaled Randall and Maria to follow him in and for Will and Cassandra to guard the pelican. They leaped out of the hatch and onto the snow, Kyle in the lead as he ran at top speed, building momentum. Kyle smashed through the door and stopped right outside Anders' cell. She was surprised to see him, if not relived from the look on her face. Kyle found the forcefield controls and began frantically typing away on them.

"Try and trace the power source" Anders suggested.

"I have a better idea" Kyle said as he raised his MA5B against the controls, and prepared to fire. Another explosion sounded, much closer and the whole building shook, followed by the lights and the forcefield going out. Kyle extended his hand and Anders took it. Careful not to squeeze too hard, Kyle led her back outside where the explosions were dying down a bit. Suddenly, Sergeant Forge came around the corner, flanked by Randall and Maria.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Kyle snapped. "I specifically said it was too dangerous."

"I'm in charge of this ground operation, now if you don't mind" Forge said as he pointed in the direction of the pelican, but it was gone and elites were beginning to close in.

"omega-four, where the hell are you?" Kyle said into his COM as he, Randall and Maria formed a circle around Anders and Forge. Suddenly, the pelican swooped in and Will stood at the open hatch, Kyle surmised what he was scheming so he hefted doctor Anders.

"Relax" Kyle said to her. "And try to stay still during flight."

He tossed the doctor as hard as he could, surprisingly she kept a fairly ridged form and Will was able to catch her. Randall repeated the process with Forge, who protested the whole way up. Once Will winked his acknowledgment light green, Kyle, Randall and Maria took off, building momentum and pushing off the ice as hard as they could. Leaping into the air, Randall and Kyle grabbed hold of the bottom ramp of the dropship and they both held Maria's hands as the pelican ascended.

* * *

February 4, 2531

location: Epsilon Indi system, Harvest- UNSC firebase alpha

Alpha base had been hit hard by the Covenant ambush and Kyle had depleted a lot of airborne ordnance during the rescue of Dr Anders. Right now, the base was vulnerable and so were the Covenant, but neither foe could launch a Major counter attack any time soon so they just had to sit and wait. Kyle and team omega were assigned one of the repaired barracks to themselves as the landing pads were fixed up so they could receive resupply from the _Spirit of Fire_.

"Kyle" Randall said as he walked over. "There's something wrong with that Sergeant Forge guy."

"So the guy's a bit eccentric, he still got the job done."

"No I mean there is seriously something wrong with him. I did some digging on the UNSC database, specifically his CSV, the guy failed his last psychological exam."

"Why is he on active duty then?" Kyle asked.

"I suppose the UNSC needs every soldier they can get" said Randall. "Not to mention from what I herd, Forge has earned the trust of practically every marine down here. Even the crew of the _Spirit of Fire_ like him. Kyle, this guy could be a big risk."

"I know and I'll keep my eye on him" Kyle replied. Thanks for telling me."

A marine arrived with orders to escort Kyle to the command bunker, he told Randall to have the team ready just in case. Kyle walked across the icy ground toward the command bunker, he looked around and saw some wounded being unloaded off a pelican, heading for the medical tent. Most of the base was constructed of tents and a few prefab structures, most of which were leveled in the Covenant ambush. One building was sticking out of the ground only five feet, the command bunker. Kyle went inside and the halls were almost too small to accommodate his height, so Kyle had to remove his helmet to give himself some breathing room. Portable heaters were strung up throughout the concrete halls, along with portable light fixtures mounted on the ceiling. The largest room of the bunker was the operations center which was adorned with portable computers and monitors. Anders was sitting at one with Forge standing behind her, talking to someone on the screen. Kyle walked over and saw Captain Cutter on the screen, and saluted.

"_Spartan"_ Cutter acknowledged which drew Forge and Anders' attention to Kyle without his helmet on.

"_I should let Anders tell you what she just tole me."_

"As I explained to the Captain, I overheard their Commander say they found some kind of relic on the surface, most likely the structure we detected earlier. This may be the whole reason they chose Harvest in the first place. They also mentioned it as being tainted by some kind of infection, most likely referring to our presence. He was also directed to destroy it."

"_That's why I've decided to send everything we have to capture this relic before the Covenant can destroy it" _said Cutter. "_This structure may be the key to the Covenant presence on Harvest, possibly this whole war. I don't need to reiterate how important it is that you succeed." _

"Yes, sir" Kyle and Forge said at the same time.

--

"_omega-one, I have sight of the artifact, it looks like the ice is covering most of it but the Covenant appear to have uncovered the front door... and opened it"_ Maria reported.

"Roger that" said Kyle from the driver's seat of a small convoy of warthogs, all they were going in with. Their pelicans and hornets would circle in later, due to the shortage of ammunition. Kyle gave the signal and the warthogs began their charge across the winding ice canyon that lead to the relic. Coming around the first bend, they spotted a grunt scouting party that was easily dispatched. But their cover was blown and they had to step on the gas, a dangerous choice on the icy roads. As they made the final turn, Will, manning the chaingun on Kyle's hog opened up on the Covenant troops, which consisted of only grunts, jackals and a small handful of elites. Then Kyle got his first good at the structure, it was half buried in ice, but the most interesting part was the architecture. Though Kyle hadn't played the games in several years, he recognized the design, it was Forerunner. Just inside he could see a purple, cone shaped device about ten feet high that was being tended to by grunts, it was defiantly Covenant though.

"The bomb" Randall said from the passenger seat. "We gotta take it out."

"Then hang on" said Kyle as he floored the gas and drove the hog through the entrance. Smashing the gas petal with his foot, Kyle, Randall and Will bailed out of the hog as it kept going straight into the bomb, the warthog surprisingly didn't set it off as it completely destroyed the bomb.

"I half expected it to blow" said Kyle as he stood up.

"That wasn't the bomb" said Randall as he pointed to several purple lines that ran from the device to plasma coils positioned on the walls and ceiling, the plasma in them dimmed as the power source was cut.

"The detonator?" Said Will.

"They've got better weapons than us but how come their detonators are the size of a warthog?" Kyle commented. He got on TEAMCOM and addressed his team. "Tell Dr Anders she's clear to enter. Will, you and Maria post guard with some of the marines at the entrance, I'll lead a small force to scout out the structure."

Acknowledgment lights winked on and so Kyle joined Randall in taking a look around the large atrium.

"Kyle, who do you suppose built this?" Randall asked.

"Probably some ancient Covenant" Kyle lied, knowing full well who built it, but why? He vaguely remembered the book _Contact Harvest, _but knew the Covenant who attacked there weren't looking for this, their scanners based off Forerunner tech detected humans which were Forerunner descendants. But why didn't this place show up on the Covenant scans? Or maybe it didn't want to be found. Dr Anders, Sergeant Forge and a few marines entered a short time later, both of them were gawking at the size of the room.

"This isn't Covenant" Anders remarked.

"Over here" said Randall as she and Cassandra located a platform toward the back of the room, Kyle recognized the design, a lift.

"This appears to be some kind of control" Anders said as she pointed to a holographic button, like the ones from Halo, mounted on a pedestal at the back of the lift platform. Kyle walked over to it and was compelled to activate it. Before he shook off his confusion, the lift started to descend with the search team and Kyle aboard.

"What did you do?" Anders asked.

"Turned it on, I guess" said Kyle as they continued their drop into the bowls of the facility. They dropped for what seemed like miles before the lift stopped in yet another vaulted room. Anders and Forge walked forward with the Spartans and marines bringing up the rear. Kyle was busy looking around the room for potential threats, mainly sentinels, assuming there were any. So he didn't hear Anders' comments on what she found until he reached her position. She and Forge were standing in front of a sphere shaped holopanel that was at the base of a tank, what was in the tank made Kyle suddenly realize everything. Floating inside were 20 or so flood infection forms, honest to god real ones!

"Some kind of Covenant pet fish they forgot?" Forge joked.

"Possibly" Anders replied. "Perhaps these controls will open the tank and I can get a specimen for analysis."

"Don't!" Kyle screamed. "Back away from those things, now!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Forge said in an agitated voice, but he jumped back in surprise as one of the infection forms became active and latched onto the side of the tank, trying to break out. Kyle raised his MA5B at the tank as did the other marines when they saw his actions.

"Kyle, what's going on?" Randall asked as he pointed his weapon at the tank.

"We need to leave, now!" Kyle yelled.

"Not until you tell me what's going on" Forge insisted.

"Sergeant, I'm giving you an order" said Kyle.

"Kid, do you know anything? Our ranks are equal, not to mention you're a swabbie."

I know about you last psyche exam" Kyle said. "I can't explain now, all you need to do is follow my orders and maybe we can all live. I can use that information against you."

Forge seemed ready to attack Kyle but took his recommendation as more infection forms became active and tried to break out of the tank. Backing up, Kyle and the others reached the lift.

"_Spirit of Fire_, come in" Kyle signaled on his radio, but obviously the signal couldn't penetrate this far underground. As the lift ascended, Kyle began to go over what he'd learned, the reason the Covenant didn't detect it the first time around was because the Forerunners made it undetectable, this place was a flood research facility. Kyle couldn't let it remain intact, he had to destroy it. Once the lift reached the top, Kyle had everyone run for the exit. A snow storm was moving in, soon visibility would be at nothing.

"Kyle, you better start talking" Cassandra said. "You know what these things are. Did you know they were here?"

Kyle didn't respond but activated his FLEETCOM channel. "_Spirit of Fire_, be advised under NavSpecWep authority I'm declaring emergency code: Bandersnatch. I need immediate heavy reinforcements and a HAVOK nuke to my position."

"_Code Bandersnatch acknowledged"_ Serina replied. "_alert has been sounded, reinforcement eta is five minutes."_

As soon as Kyle was finished, Cassandra and Randall surrounded him.

"Kyle, at least tell us" Randall asked. "What were those things, what is this place?"

Kyle opened an encrypted COM to the two of them. "What I tell you stays between us, clear?"

They nodded.

"This facility was built by a race older than the Covenant. They're long extinct and those things down there are the reason they're extinct. Kyle wasn't willing to tell them any more than they needed to know."

"Why would this race have them caged up like that if they killed their entire species?" Randall asked.

"Think about it" Cassandra answered. "They were studying them. Kyle, if these things were some kind of weapon then we should be taking specimens, learn to use them against the Covenant.

"That's how you know this" Randall said. "ONI has you on some kind of mission."

"You don't understand" Kyle said. "They can't be controlled. The race that was killed were more advanced than the Covenant. Plus, If I was on some kind of ONI mission they'd want samples and I wouldn't be trying to blow this place up. I understand the the threat these things pose, I can't tell you how I know... I just need you to trust me."

Randall and Cassandra were silent for a minute before Randall said, "what do you need us to do?"

"as soon as the nuke arrives I need you two to come with me back in, we set the nuke on a timer, get out and watch this place turns into a smoking crater."

"Speaking of the nuke, here it comes" said Cassandra.

Several sonic booms could be herd and a few seconds later multiple pods began landing around the artifact, drop pods. ODSTs emerged from the pods, one of them walked over to Kyle, the HAVOK nuke was strapped to his chest.

"Your nuke sir...", the helljumper stopped short as a plasma bolt struck him in the side. From the ridge, a full battalion of elites began firing on the UNSC forces. Several dropped as Maria snipped them and Will laid down fire on the ridge with his jackhammer. Cassandra and Kyle covered Randall as he removed the HAVOK from the dead ODST.

"Where's the timer card?" Kyle asked as he began firing on elites charging down the hill. Randall held a small transparent card in his hand, half of it had been burned away. It was the timer card that was normally inserted into the bottom of the HAVOK for timed detonation using the numeric pad on the translucent, crystal surface. It had been damaged by the plasma that killed the helljumper.

"We'll have to settle for remote detonation, then" Cassandra said.

"We can't, remember" Randall pointed out. "There's no way a radio signal can penetrate all that way". He lifted a small cover off the front of the device, a small red button was underneath, the manual detonator.

"I'll do it" Kyle said as he took the HAVOK from Randall. "All teams, fall back now" he said over the radio.

Cassandra prepared to leave but Randall stayed where he was, covering Kyle as he attached the nuke to the magnetic pad on his thigh.

"Look, I was never good at last words..." Randall started. Suddenly he rushed Kyle, knocking his legs out from under him and grabbing the HAVOK in the same motion. "That's why I'm doing it".

He sprinted for the relic and Kyle gave chase, but Randall was faster and made it inside first. Locating a panel near the door, Randall shot it out with his assault rifle. The door closed before Kyle could get to him. Before it shut all the way, a timer was uploaded to Kyle's HUD, for seven minutes. Kyle had to shake it off and get the hell out of there, so he turned away and ran back. The storm was in full force and Cassandra was nowhere in sight. As Kyle ran, he noticed something in his peripheral vision, which resolved into a red contact on his motion tracker. Looking up, he caught sight of two energy swords lunging at him. Kyle dodge just as they smacked into the ice, an elite wielding them, a big one. The elite prepared to pull them out, but Kyle was faster and he tackled the elite, causing it to loose the grip on them. They rolled around on the ice with the elite eventually able to pin Kyle beneath it. With the elite much closer, Kyle was able to get a better look at it, and was shocked. The armor, it was The Arbiter! But it couldn't be the one from the games, this one's mandibles were different, but lined with sharp teeth. Kyle couldn't worry about if this was The Arbiter he knew of or not, it was trying to kill him. The Arbiter head butted Kyle faceplate, shattering it and spraying Kyle's face with shards, none thankfully got in his eye. Kyle, using his enhanced strength was able to force the elite off of him and he kicked The Arbiter away. The Arbiter was enraged and charged at Kyle again, they were deadlocked with one another but Kyle was able to snake one of his hands free and was able to squeeze hard enough to shatter the elite's left wrist. Kyle then grabbed the elite's neck and squeezed, the elite used his good hand to grab Kyle's arm, exactly what Kyle hoped he would do. Using his now free left hand, Kyle grabbed the arbiter's leg, hoisted him off his feet and brought th arbiter's body down on one of his knees, in an attempt to break his back. Kyle only succeeded in paralyzing it from the waist down so he pinned the arbiter's good arm, yanked the plate of it's right shoulder and stabbed it into the elite's neck.

Kyle stood up, the cold air stung the cuts on his unprotected face. That's when he noticed several elites had witnessed the battle and were approaching Kyle, but they didn't fire. Kyle lost is MA5B in the battle and his M7 had also come loose in the fight. The elites seemed to be shocked at what Kyle had done, killed an Arbiter with his bare hands. Two elites retrieved the arbiter's body and Kyle ran off and disappeared in the storm. Knowing they would eventually decided to avenge their fallen Arbiter, Kyle had to get away fast. But he couldn't see anything in the storm and with his faceplate shattered, he couldn't activate IR to cut through it, not to mention he didn't know how much time was left until Randall detonated the HAVOK. Suddenly, a light shone on him from overhead, most likely a phantom. But a familiar voice said otherwise.

"_Get on, now!"_

The light disappeared as the pelican swung around and the hatch was exposed. Kyle made a break for it and got aboard just as the Covenant began firing through the storm. Cassandra, Will and Maria were in the passenger compartment.

"Where's Randall?" Maria asked.

"He's not coming, get us out of here" Kyle ordered.

The pelican zoomed into the atmosphere and got away from the relic just as a bright flash cut through the storm.

* * *

February 5, 2531

location: UNSC _Spirit of Fire_ in slipspace

Kyle sat in the armory, still in his armor, minus his damaged helmet. The cuts on his face weren't serious and would heal in a few days, but other injuries would take more time. Cassandra sat down next to him and removed her helmet.

"How are you doing?"

"It should have been me, a leader shouldn't have to order those who serve under him to do something like Randall did. I was supposed to take that nuke down, not him."

"Kyle, he did that so you wouldn't have to order anyone to, even yourself" Cassandra reassured.

"She's right, kid" said Sergeant Forge as he and Dr Anders entered. "Its never easy but we all have to face ordering someone to their deaths, and it... can break you sometimes."

"I want to apologize for what I said back on Harvest" said Kyle. "You just didn't listen to my warnings and I had to try and convince you of the danger."

"We understand" said Anders. "If you were wiling to detonate a nuke yourself to stop them from getting out then the danger these things posed must have been extreme."

They all saluted as Captain Cutter entered the room.

"Spartan, you mind explaining what was in that structure and why it warranted destroying it?"

"Sir, it was some kind of ancient weapon that the Covenant were trying to activate" said Anders.

"Kyle here destroyed it for the same reason the Covenant were, there was no way we would be able to figure out how it worked by the time Covenant reinforcements arrived" said Forge. "It was better that no one had it."

"Very well" said Cutter. "Spartan, could I speak to you for a moment?"

Kyle stood up and walked over to the Captain who led him out of earshot of the others.

"Its Kyle, right?" Cutter asked.

"Yes, sir"

"look, Kyle, I wanted to discuss your future aboard ship. I understand you lost a member of your team but I was wondering if you and your team would consider serving aboard the _Spirit of Fire_."

"Sir, I can say on behalf of my team they would gladly stay, but I can't remain in command of team omega. I'm also requesting a transfer to the original Spartan team I serve with."

"It'll be a shame to loose you. We'll arrive in the Deltan system in three weeks, you can transfer off there. He extended his hand, "good luck, hopefully we can work together in the future."

"I'd like that" said Kyle as he took the captain's hand.

Cutter left shortly after and Kyle took Cassandra aside to speak with her. He told her he wasn't going to lead the team anymore.

"So who's replacing you?"

"I was thinking it would be you" said Kyle.

"Yes, sir" Cassandra said.

"And Cassie, thanks for being a friend when I needed one."

"You're welcome, and don't be a stranger. I'm sure Maria and Will would appreciate a reunion tour with you in command."

Kyle smiled and walked off for the cryo theater. On the way he pondered his decisions and the lost of Randall he remembered from _Fall of Reach_ about Mendez saying a leader must be willing to spend the lives of people under their command, Kyle had violated this by selecting himself for the suicide mission, _it should have been me _kept repeating through his head, but was this a devotion to stop a flood outbreak, or a death wish?


	11. Chapter 11: love at first sight?

**Message from the general: **here's an interesting chapter, just how did Kyle take finding out he has a crush on Kelly?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 11: love at first sight?**

March 27, 2535

location: Epsilon Eridani system, Reach- UNSC military complex

_I can't be in love with her, can I?_ Kyle kept thinking as he mingled around inside, he couldn't stay with Kelly, looking at the stars so he made an excuse to get away from her. Maria's party was dying down and it was almost lights out across the base. Kyle decided to return to his bunk, sleep on this revelation. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could think about was Kelly. He kept seeing her every time, her eyes, that smile, her quirky sense of humor.

_Oh god, I am in love with her!_ Kyle couldn't deny it, he'd fallen head over heels for Kelly. He turned over on his stomach and buried his face in his pillow, trying to put Kelly out of his mind, but no luck. _Come on Kyle, you're 26, deal with this like a man_. It seemed pointless to fight it, so he tried to embrace these new feelings. But before he got the chance to think about it, someone arrived.

"Hey, Kyle" Cassandra said as she nudged his shoulder. "Why'd you take off?"

"It was nothing" Kyle replied quickly.

"Why is your face all red?"

Kyle didn't know he was blushing, and he knew Cassandra would keep pressuring him until he spilled the truth, so there was no point in fighting it. Sitting up, he decided to try and confide in her.

"Look, Cassie, you really need to keep this between us."

"Of course, is it something serious?"

"No, its just... I think I like someone."

Cassandra had a puzzled look on her face. "All of us like other people, why is this a problem?"

Kyle wasn't sure how to take this, did the other Spartans even have a basic concept of love? He decided to ask anyway.

"Look, I'm trying to say... I'm in love with this person."

"Oh, that's what you meant by like". Her face changed to a more serious one. "Is it me?"

"No" Kyle replied. "Would I be talking to you if I was?"

"Good point" Cassandra replied. "Have you been in love before?"

"Yeah, before I became a Spartan."

"Did she love you back?"

"Yep" Kyle replied.

"Well how did you take that, seems weird that you're asking me for help?"

"It was sort of an accident" Kyle explained as he started to remember back to his previous life, ten years ago.

* * *

April 29, 2008

location: Sol system, Earth, Alexandria, VA

Kyle was 16 at this time, just an average kid with average friends, one of which was over visiting. Kyle was seated at his computer in his room while a young woman lay across his bed. She was older than Kyle by only a month, she had long black hair and slightly tan skin due to her Native American mother. Her name was Catlin Simmons, one of Kyle's best friends since the 4th grade. Like Kyle, her father was also in the military, but was in the Air Force, not to mention he worked at the Pentagon so Catlin got to see him more often.

"I don't see it" Kyle said as he read the blog site.

"They're recording a new album, so it make sense they're going on tour" said Catlin.

"I guess, but come on, they're all almost 60. I don't think they can handle it."

"Kyle, AC/DC is your favorite band, aren't you psyched? A New album, a tour!"

It all just seems to good to be true Kyle replied. This was one of the reasons Kyle was friends with Catlin, it was strange to find a girl into AC/DC, but not unheard of. They had many things in common, from music to favorite foods. Kyle was about to check another website when a pillow hit the back of his head. He looked over at Catlin, a smirk was on her face and she was holding another pillow from Kyle's bed.

"You're just asking for it" Kyle said in a 'matter of fact' tone.

"Bring it, tough guy" Catlin replied, while trying to hold back a giggle.

Kyle picked up the pillow Catlin tossed at his head and full blown pillow fight ensued. Catlin was on her feet and occasionally got a blow against Kyle, both of them laughing the whole time. Eventually, Kyle grabbed hold of Catlin's pillow and tried to wrench it free, it ended up tearing and Kyle fell down on the floor. The memory foam beads that were in the pillow were all over the place, including Kyle. Catlin started to laugh so Kyle grabbed her arm and pulled her to the floor. She shoved him and Kyle ended up on his back, Catlin was preparing to tickle him into submission. But her legs slipped on the foam beads and she landed on top of Kyle. It became quiet suddenly, their faces were only a few inches apart, neither of them were smiling. Suddenly, though they didn't know who started it, they kissed. It only lasted a few seconds before they broke away, Catlin was still on top of Kyle but kept her face a good distance away.

"That was different" Kyle finally said.

"Yeah" Catlin replied.

"So what happens now?"

"Maybe this" Catlin said as she leaned down and kissed him again, Kyle relaxed into the kiss which lasted for a full minute.

"I had no idea you felt that way" Kyle said.

"Neither did I" Catlin said.

"Where do we go from here then? Are we just fooling around, or are we actually going to try this?"

"Kyle, you're talking too much."

"I know just the way to fix that" Kyle said as he leaned up and kissed Catlin again. They both sat up and Catlin leaned back against Kyle's bed, still kissing him. They stayed this way for several minutes, until Kyle noticed a draft and broke away from Catlin to see his little brother Josh standing in the open door way.

"You two were making out!" He said as he pointed a finger in their direction. "I'm telling mom!"

He ran off downstairs, leaving Kyle and Catlin dumbstruck, suddenly, they burst out laughing.

"Oops" Catlin giggled.

* * *

March 27, 2535

location: Epsilon Eridani system, Reach- UNSC military complex'

"So we were fooling around, and we kissed" Kyle finished explaining, careful to omit anything that pointed to his past life. "I kinda liked her before, she was the same way. So we dated and our relationship grew, but we called it off. Then my life got turned upside down and I ended up becoming a Spartan."

"and you're not sure if this girl you like feels the same way toward you?" Cassandra asked.

"Yes. Don't get me wrong, she's a good friend, she's always nice to me" Kyle went on as if he was in a daze. Cassandra put two and two together, and was able to figure out who it was.

"You're in love with Kelly!?"

Kyle's face drained of color for a moment before becoming red, his stomach clenched up and he was at a loss for words.

"It is her!"

"Cassie, keep your mouth shut" Kyle hissed. "Please don't tell her."

"I already said I would" Cassandra reassured him. "Look, my advise is to play things slow, see what happens down the road. Who knows, she may love you back one day."

She left Kyle there to think about it, he collapsed back on the bunk and was finally able to drift off to sleep. Thankfully, no one was in the room to here him mutter "Kelly".


	12. Chapter 12: gray area, part 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 12: gray area, part 1**

April 17, 2540

location: Adara system, Adara IV- New Seattle

Adara was a fringe world, planets located on the border of the inner colonies and outer colonies. These days, Adara was considered the front lines now that most of the outer colonies had been destroyed. Most people tried to get out when the war reached a boiling point in the outer colonies, even with the Cole protocol in place, the Covenant were slowly leaking into the inner colonies. The population was screaming for the UNSC to launch an evacuation of the colony, but the population was in and around the 2 million mark, an impossible task for FLEETCOM as they didn't have the ability to recall that many ships. The situation on the surface got so desperate that the planet's governor sent a plea to the colonial administration and the UEG. Unfortunately for him, the UNSC recently superseded both organizations and assumed direct control of the government in the wake of the destruction of the outer colonies. Because of this, Adara had became a breeding ground for insurrectionists. On the outskirts of New Seattle was a bar, one of many in the city, but was reminiscent of the bars from 21st century Earth. A man in his mid fifties walked in, he looked like an ordinary civilian, no one even suspected his true identity. He walked over to one of the booths on the far wall, where another man, much younger, was seated. The older guy joined him and the younger man took another swig from his flask.

"Hammond" the older man said.

"You're taking a big risk, Terrance" said Hammond.

"From what you told me, this is worth it."

"The planet is falling apart, when the URF takes over they'll flip to know future Fleet Admiral Terrance Hood is planet side. When's the promotion ceremony happening anyway?"

"Just give me the information I need, Hammond" said Hood.

"I assume you're giving my usual fee?"

"Why wouldn't we?" Hood asked.

Hammond chuckled, "I'm sorry Terrance, but the URF pays a bit better than the UNSC."

"What have you done!" Hood barked.

"This is simply business, Terrance" Hammond muttered.

Hood knew he'd been sold out, and he saw several large, muscular men get up from their bar stools. He had a concealed pistol strapped to his ankle, but knew he'd only take one or two of them before the others overwhelmed him.

"It'd be best if you didn't struggle, Terrance" Hammond said.

"That's Admiral to you" Hood snapped as he drew his weapon and shot Hammond in the kneecap from under the table. He quickly nailed one of the thugs, but the others began to charge at Hood. Thankfully, the bartender herd the gunshots and drew his own rifle, firing twin shots into the ceiling that turned everyone's head in his direction. Hood used this distraction to slip out of the boot, but the thugs had looked back in his direction and were worming their way through the crowd toward Hood. Suddenly, another distraction presented itself as the wall behind Hood broke apart as a green figure smashed through it, grabbed Hood by the collar and pulled him through the hole. He spun around while keeping Hood pinned to his chest as bullets pinged off his back. The Spartan primed a frag and tossed it back through the hole before throwing the Admiral over his shoulder and sprinting off into the woods. After running a few meters, the Spartan set Hood down.

"You'll forgive me if I don't salute" the Spartan said. "But we need to get you to the extraction site."

Hood recognized the voice from an earlier rescue mission, for himself.

"How did you know where I was?" Hood asked. "I made sure no one knew I'd left Reach."

"With all due respect, sir, the UNSC keeps tabs on all future fleet admirals, especially those being named to the security council."

"You're that Spartan from my rescue mission in '27. What's your name?"

"Spartan-091, Admiral" he replied.

"I mean your real name, I know you all have a normal name to go with that number" said Hood.

"Kyle" the Spartan replied.

"Well, Kyle, you have a better extraction plan this time around?" Hood asked.

"We're meeting up with a team of ODSTs that have secured a structure on the outskirts of town. If I may ask, sir, what were you doing here?"

"One of the people in that bar was a contact of mine, former contact actually. He sent word to me via courier that he had important information about the insurrectionists in this system, something they had. He would only speak to me in person so I made my way out here. I didn't suspect a double cross, he'd been payed off by rebels apparently, I can't believe I arranged that worm's payment in advance."

"Moneytalks" Kyle muttered. "Its not your fault, Admiral. We should go."

Kyle handed Hood a pistol, having lost his own in the escape from the bar, Hood took the weapon and sticked to Kyle's side. They walked through the woods for close to an hour before arriving on the perimeter of a factory. Kyle flashed hand signals toward the building and several back armored figures appeared from concealed positions around the building. They surrounded Kyle and Hood, two of them wrestled Hood into a flack jacket before rushing him inside. They climbed five flights of stairs before emerging on the roof where two ODSTs manned a remote transmitter and another carried a M19-B surface to air launcher to protect against any unwelcome guests. The ODSTs finished their work with the transmitter and a few moments later the familiar roar of a pelican's engines could be herd. Suddenly, two loud, thundering sounds were herd from the west, near the city center. A moment later, the adjacent building was destroyed.

"Artillery!" one of the ODSTs said.

"Move!" Kyle barked as he picked up Hood and sprinted for the dropship as it touched down.

"How the hell did they isolate our position?" Hood asked as he took one of the crash seats. Kyle knew the pelican was using radar jammers, and the rescue team stayed off their COM channels so they couldn't be traced, which is why they had the...

"the transmitter" Kyle muttered. He sprinted off the pelican and over to the small box with a tiny antenna sticking out of it and promptly smashed the device with his foot, but the damage had been done. Two more thunderclaps sounded and Kyle knew they were out of time.

"Take off, now!" Kyle screamed into his COM as he bolted for the side of the building. The pelican took off and just as Kyle leaped over the side, the roof was struck and the blast wave propelled Kyle over the the roof of the other adjacent building and he landed in the street below. As he stood up from the crater he'd made with his impact, Kyle felt a sharp lance of pain in his right shoulder which bore the brunt of the impact. He knew it had been dislocated but to reinsert it meant he had to disconnect his armor's shoulder plates. In a combat situation, his instincts told him he'd have to deal with the injury later and focus on signaling the pelican. Kyle tried the COM with no luck, the rebels were jamming the frequencies. His motion tracker flared up with multiple contacts approaching so Kyle made a break for it, but didn't get far as a sering pain shot up through his left leg, and his foot became immobile. Kyle tried to hop off the road, but several enemy vehicles rolled up and a frag grenade landed next to Kyle. The explosion didn't harm him but with only one working foot, he was knocked over. Before he knew it, rebel soldiers had him surrounded and incapacitated. Suddenly, an explosion enveloped Kyle and his vision seemed to fade away.

--

"His Achilles tendon has nearly been torn off, we're also going to have to fix his shoulder."

"Get on it."

Kyle was in and out of it, but the two people he herd speaking were male. He couldn't feel his armor and his injured leg and shoulder were killing him. He felt a pinprick on his arm and his eyelids became more heavier, he was drifting off.

"On three" a female voice said. ".... three"

Kyle felt a sharp lance of pain as his shoulder was reinserted into his socket.

"Flip him over, I'm going to stitch his tendon" the female said again. Kyle thought he recognized the voice for a second, but the sedative finally took hold.

* * *

Date unknown

location: unknown

Kyle came to after an undetermined amount of time, and noticed he was practically naked, save for the underwear he was wearing. He also wasn't restrained which made him wonder who had captured him back on the planet. Kyle kept his eyes shut as not to alert whoever walked into the room. He waited until who ever it was, was right next to the bed Kyle was on, then he attacked. Kyle bolted upright, grabbed the person by the shoulder and flipped him over the table and onto the other side of the floor. Kyle hopped on top of him and that's when he realized he was a she.

"You going to get off me, Kyle?" she asked, Kyle didn't need to see her face to recognize the familiar Slavic accent.

"Adriana?!" Kyle said as he got off of her and offered a hand, she took it and Kyle helped her to her feet. "How did I get here, and where is here?"

"You're on board our prowler, we were conducting a mission in this system when we picked up your destroyer in orbit. We were on the surface and we saw what happened, I managed to get Jai to put together a quick rescue mission. We fire bombed the area you were in, and then got you out."

"Thanks for the rescue, but I need to get back to my ship."

"You can't, they jumped after that pelican got back" Adriana explained. "I assume you're marked MIA. So, what were you doing here?"

"Shadowing mission that turned into a rescue" Kyle said. "So what's your story?"

"I think Jai better explain" Adriana said. She went over to a drawer and removed a gray jumpsuit which she tossed to Kyle. "Unless you'd rather run around in your underwear" she joked as Kyle began putting it on. After he was fully clothed, Adriana led Kyle out of the tiny infirmary and into the corridor. Kyle was surprised, gray team had actually been allowed a full prowler, but was puzzled by the lack of a crew. In fact, there didn't seem to be anyone else aboard and this was confirmed when they reached the bridge. Seated at the helm was Mike and taking the captain's chair was Jai.

"You're awake" Jai said. "Welcome aboard the _Mischa."_

Mike let out a grunt of disapproval at the ship's name.

"Mischa?" Kyle asked.

"It was her idea" Mike droned.

"The name isn't important" Adriana cut in.

"So where the hell did you get a prowler, let alone operate the thing on your own?"

"First off, we asked for it" Jai started. "Second, we have some help."

On cue, the holotank between the NAV and ops consoles turned on and an AI appeared, the avatar was female and dressed in a Marine uniform.

"My name's Sabrina" she said in a rather rough tone.

"She's has a bit of a temper" Adriana whispered.

"I herd that!" Sabrina snapped. Adriana responded with a scowl at the holotank.

"Settle down, you two" Jai said. "Anyway, Sabrina here helps run all he primary systems so we don't need a crew". Jai stood up and walked for the door. "Could you come with me?" He asked Kyle.

"Yeah" Kyle said as he turned and followed. Jai took him to a nearby conference room with Adriana, once inside they got straight to business.

"Kyle, this mission is classified, as is what I'm about to tell you" said Jai.

"My lips are sealed" said Kyle. Adriana chuckled before Jai continued.

"We think the insurrectionists are working with the Covenant" Jai said.

"What! Why the hell would they do that?"

"Five years ago, right when the Cole protocol went into effect we were sent to retrieve unsecured NAV data from the colony of madrigal" Adriana said. "We found out insurrectionists had led some survivors to the asteroid belt and had built a colony of interconnected asteroids there. Eventually, some Covenant stumbled across them and began trading with them."

"They were funneling weapons, plasma rifles and pistols to their buddies in the inner colonies" Jai said. "They almost gave the Covenant a complete UNSC star chart but we managed to stop them. We think some of the surviving insurrectionists may have renewed some of their Covenant contacts."

"So what are they doing here?" Kyle asked. "I assumed you tracked them here."

"We did" said Adriana. "And we think we know what they're after". She picked up a remote from the table and activated one of the wall displays, on it a recording of a Covenant destroyer played. But it zoomed in on a plasma torpedo after the Covenant fired.

"Ship-to-scale plasma weapon systems" Jai muttered. "We know the rebels have at least two destroyers in their arsenal. It wouldn't take much to adapt these weapons to those ships and with the number of sympathizers they have in FLEETCOM, they could easily obtain proper transponder codes".

"They'll sneak up on our fleets and smash them to pieces" said Adriana.

"So I take it you know where to find them?" Kyle asked.

"We do now, thanks to you" said Jai. "We manged to intercept rebel communications during their attack on your rescue team the other day. Sabrina shifted through them and found an old UNSC ammunition depot that's being used as rebel HQ. It has sub basements, bunkers, all the places that could easily be converted to a research facility for the plasma weapons."

"So we need to take it out" said Kyle.

"Exactly" said Adriana. "Sabrina as been pressuring us to use one of our Shivas on the instillation, instead of a surgical strike".

"Which is what we're doing" said Jai. "Sorry, Sabrina. Anyway, Kyle, we should get you fitted."

"Fitted?"

"Your armor, it was banged up, Mike's been putting it back together with spare components we have on board" said Adriana.

They led Kyle to another room where Mike was finishing up on Kyle's power plant. He closed the lid and finished the diagnostics before giving the thumbs up to Jai. Kyle noticed his armor plates had been resprayed gray.

"All the spare plating we had was gray" said Jai.

"Think of it this way, it makes you honorary gray team" said Adriana.

"I like the sound of that" said Kyle. Suddenly, an undersuit landed in his face.

"Put it on" said Adriana.

Kyle complied and striped out of the jumpsuit, then into the undersuit.

"Stand over here" Mike said, pointing to a metal plate in the floor, directly in front of where his armor was. Mike activated a control and several robotic arms extended from in the floor and and above Kyle.

"Spread your arms" Mike said.

Kyle raised his arms as the robot arms grabbed hold of his armor plates and began mating them to Kyle's body. Inside of a few minutes, Kyle was fully armored except for his helmet which Mike handed to him.

"Little thing I threw together on a long and boring slipspace ride" Mike said.

"Lets gear up, we're planet side in an hour" said Jai.

Kyle moved over to Mike as Adriana took her turn on the 'armor assembler', as Kyle nicknamed it.

"There was a leather bag in my armor's thigh compartment, you didn't move it did you?"

"Nope, I left it there" Mike replied. "What's in it?"

"Personal stuff" Kyle replied as he snapped on his helmet.

* * *

April 19, 2540

location: Adara system, Adara IV- old UNSC depot

It was the middle of the day on Adara, and Adara's sun was a blue giant so everything was bathed in a erringly blue glow. Kyle and Adriana moved along the western wall of the building while Jai prepared to drop in the roof. Mike was circling overhead in a pelican dropship that had been attached to the underside of the prowler. Adriana waved Kyle over to the emergency escape hatch that had been cleverly disguised as a boulder.

"Just like Reach" Adriana said as she opened the hatch, and both Spartans slipped inside. Sabrina had uploaded a schematic from 2520 to their HUDs before they left, Kyle had to hope it was still accurate. They walked through the tunnel before coming up on the maintenance ladder that led to the sub basements. Kyle went down first and then signaled to Adriana. She had to wait halfway down the ladder so Kyle could step into the hall, to give Adriana room to climb down. Kyle used a fiberoptic probe to determine if the corridor was clear, which it was. Kyle opened the service door and winked his acknowledgment light to Adriana who joined him at the bottom a moment later. The subbasements had obviously been refurbished which meant this had to be the place. Just as Kyle prepared to turn the corner, Adriana grabbed his arm.

"We should wait until Jai makes his distraction" she said.

No sooner had she said that, the corridor shook and dust rained form the ceiling.

"That explosion had to be pretty big for us to feel it all the way down here" Kyle said.

"That's how we always do it" said Adriana. "What about the explosives?"

Kyle produced the bag containing all their cans of C-7 foaming explosive. Adriana nodded and Kyle resumed taking point down the hall. They followed the map that would take them to storage chamber C, which was the most heavily shielded part of the base and perfect for testing out weapons. But as they approached the staircase, Kyle picked up a contact, so he drew his probe, snaked it around the corner and down the stairs. A guard was standing next to a heavy metal door. Kyle used hand signals to tell Adriana to take him out. She nodded and bolted down the stairs, her M7S coughing deadly rounds into the guard before he had the chance to yell. Adriana took position on the other side of the door as it opened and another man stepped through.

"We can discuss transport later" the man said to whoever was in the room as she shit the door and was met by the butt of Adriana's SMG. Kyle ran down the stairs and dragged the man away from the door.

"He's on our hit list" said Adriana. "He's a former citizen of the rubble and an ally of Peter Bonifacio, the man who wanted to sell the NAV data to the Covenant. This guy's name is Simon Sheppard."

"Lets see who he was talking to" Kyle said as he planted a breaching charge on the door. He and Adriana backed away from the door and Kyle detonated the charge. Andriana nearly ripped the door off its hinges as she pulled it open and Kyle swept the room, but what he saw shocked him. The room appeared to be a conference room, but at the far end of the table, bobbing off the floor, dressed in intricate robes, was a Covenant prophet!


	13. Chapter 13: gray area, part 2

**Message from the general: **ah, my first update of the new year and we're kicking off 2009 with a bang because I've got some big revelations in this chapter

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 13: gray area, part 2**

April 20, 2540

location: Adara system, UNSC prowler _Mischa_

Kyle sat at one of the bridge stations, scrutinizing the security monitor. It was patched into the feed from the brig, where they had deposited the prophet they captured on the surface. Jai and Mike rounded up a handful of rebels and they were locked in crew quarters with the man called Simon Sheppard. The prophet hadn't said a word since Kyle cornered it back at the rebel bunker, even then it wouldn't speak. It simply raised its hands and followed Kyle's instructions. There was something different about this prophet, it lacked the saggy parts of the face that the hair grew off of, and the thing's skin was surprisingly smooth. It also didn't have a head piece and Kyle had removed its gravity belt along with a plasma pistol that was concealed in its robes. Kyle activated the adjacent monitor and looked in on the rebels, there were five in total. A middle aged woman was tending to Simon Sheppard as he lay unconscious on one of the beds. Something about her seemed familiar to Kyle.

"That is the ugliest Covenant I've ever seen" said Jai as he looked at the monitor. "Some kind of species we haven't encountered yet?"

"Probably" Kyle replied, knowing full well what it was.

"I say we kill it right now" said Sabrina. "Let ONI go over the corpse and they'll decide what kind of threat these things pose."

"One step at a time" said Kyle. "Let's see what the rebels know, first."

"What makes you so sure they'll talk?" Jai asked.

"You checked them for false teeth, right?"

"They didn't have any" Jai replied.

"Then they're essentially cornered, no way out. If we offer them a deal, one of them might just be greedy enough to take it."

"They could also be desperate enough to tell you anything you wanted to hear" said Sabrina.

"For once, she's right" said Jai.

"We're going to just have to take the risk" said Kyle.

"Alright, do it. But you better get into your armor, try and intimidate them a little" said Jai.

"I'm not planning to, we need to give the allusion that there's a crew on board" said Kyle as he walked off the bridge. He used the access tube to drift down to deck three, crew quarters. He approached the locked door and Sabrina unlocked it by remote. Kyle stepped in and the rebels instantly looked in his direction. The only ones who didn't look was the woman tending to Simon, and he was just starting to stir.

"You're Spartan friends did a number on his head" the woman said. "He probably has a concussion."

"Beck, I'm fine" Simon said. "Are you my interrogator?"

"Get up, both of you" Kyle ordered.

The woman helped Sheppard to his feet and brought him over to Kyle.

"Please leave her here" said Sheppard.

"Simon, you're hurt. I'm not going to let this ONI dog question you alone" the woman said.

"Both of you, move" Kyle said in an intimidating voice. The woman helped the reluctant Sheppard out of the room and down the hall to the conference room. Kyle got another feeling of familiarity with this woman.

"Take a seat" Kyle said when they arrived.

The woman helped Sheppard into a seat opposite the main display, Kyle stood across from them.

"Do you realize what kind of offense you have committed by conspiring with the enemy?" He asked them. "ONI is going to make your trial a spectacle, rebels working with the Covenant. You can kiss any support you have left goodbye. No one is going to help people who team up with genocidal aliens."

"Don't tell me you hurt her?" Simon asked.

"Wait, its a she?!" Kyle asked. It suddenly made perfect sense, the lack of facial hair and the smooth skin, a female prophet.

"Look, she doesn't want to hurt us" said Sheppard. "She came to us alone, she asked us to help her get to Reach to talk with HIGHCOM. She's here on a mission of peace."

--

Kyle had returned Sheppard and his friend to their room right after he told them the prophet's purpose. He brought this to Jai who signed off on interrogating the prophet for information. Kyle was outside the brig when Adriana arrived, fully armored and armed in case the prophet tried something. Kyle went into the brig and stood in front of the glass wall. In the cell, the prophet sat on the bunk, but stood up when she noticed Kyle's presence.

"I know you probably can't understand me" he started.

"Quite on the contrary" the prophet replied, in a feminine voice. She pointed to a spot on her neck right where it met her head. "There is a translator implanted beneath my skin, that and I have studied your language."

"Then this makes this easier" said Kyle. "What is your true purpose here?"

"Are you part of the ruling human government, I believe you call it UNSC?" The prophet asked.

"I'll ask the questions here" Kyle said. "Now, what is your true purpose here?"

"I want to speak to your leaders, please take me to the planet Simon refers to as Reach."

"You'll speak to me!" Kyle barked.

She appeared to sigh before continuing, "very well, its seems I have to trust you with my intentions. My name is obligation, I am one of three former hierarchs of the Covenant. We were deposed 15 of your years ago by the three current hierarchs, I only found out why a short time ago. But none of that is important, my mission is. I am here to offer a truce, and to offer your species entry into the Covenant."

--

Kyle left immediately after obligation had told him her purpose, he didn't bother to interrogate the rebels again, two surprises had been enough for one day. Kyle was now in the mess hall, getting dinner. His meal of choice, freeze dried meatloaf with instant potatoes. Kyle sat down one one of several empty tables in the mess and began eating his meal, reflecting on the day. One one thing on Kyle's mind was that strange woman with Sheppard, how familiar she seemed.

"Hello, Kyle?" Adriana said which snapped Kyle out of his daze. She was standing across from him, carrying her own tray of food. "I said, can I sit with you?"

"yeah, sure" Kyle replied as Adriana took the seat across from him.

"I can't believe what that thing offered" said Adriana. "Join the Covenant, then what? They lure us into a false sense of security and they just end up stabbing us in the back later down the road."

"Considering the situation, it might be a good idea to do it" said Kyle. "Look at what's happened, the outer colonies are gone, billions dead. We can't win, that has occurred to you?"

"Don't you remember what Deja taught us the first day....", Adriana stopped short, she'd forgotten that Kyle wasn't with them then. "Hey, Kyle, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, what?"

"If you could go back home, back before the Spartan program, what would you do?"

Kyle had to think long and hard on this one, he could vividly remember parts of his life, his parents and two brothers. The day it all changed flashed through his mind, the guy in the alley, the energy blast. To this day, Kyle still hadn't been able to remember anything more about the incident. Who would send him here and why? He stopped his pondering on that issue and thought about Adriana's question.

"A pizza" Kyle finally said. "A fresh, hot, cheese pizza. That would be the first thing I'd do, have one."

"Pizza huh?" Adriana replied. "I'd try and find my parents, assuming they're still around. What about you, would you try and find them?"

"I can still remember them clearly" Kyle replied. "Besides, there's no going back for me, I can never see them again."

"Did they die?"

"Something like that."

Adriana was puzzled by his last response and was about to open her mouth when Jai stepped into the room.

"Kyle, that Covenant thing wanted to speak to you. I tried talking to her but she said she'd only speak to you. Can you take another crack at her, see if you can get her to trust you a little better?"

"Ok, move her to the conference room" said Kyle. "If we try and be a bit more friendly she just might let on more."

"I'll get Mike on it" Jai said as he left.

"Its going to be a long night" Adriana said.

--

Kyle entered the conference room to find Mike in his armor, guarding obligation. Kyle nodded to him and he left the room. Kyle then motioned for obligation to take one of the seats.

"Thank you for seeing me" she said as she sat, but shifted around in the seat.

"Why don't you start from the beginning" said Kyle.

"Very well" she replied. "15 of your years ago one of the members of my species held the rank of minister of fortitude. He was the one who sent the first ship to your kind, the planet you called Harvest. He and two others for some reason saw your kind as a threat and wanted to seize control."

"And how did they do that?" Kyle asked, still sketchy on the info from _Contact Harvest._

"One of the other hierarchs, restraint, had illegitimately fathered two children. My species, the San 'Shyuum have to undergo selective genetic breeding due to such a small gene pool. Because of this, he confided in another to claim the children as his own. This one allied with truth and now carries the title regret. They used this information to force him, myself and tolerance to step down from power."

"Why did you just take this lying down, why didn't you stop them?" Kyle asked, a tone of bitterness was in his voice.

"I was not in any position to bargain, I myself have a somewhat tainted reputation. I had recently given birth to triplets and was rather lax in my duties."

Kyle leaned back in his chair, taking in what she had said.

"I can read people's reactions quite well, even those of another species. You are surprised that I had three children, and now you know what risks I am taking by coming to your people."

"So why are you here then?"

"A while ago I uncovered something while on a pilgrimage to a holy artifact on our home city. An oracle there told me the truth about your kind, what you are to us. It also spoke of what truth had done. I am here because there is a group who are ready to bring this before our high council. I need only wait for a way to get to your leaders to present this, but finding you has been difficult since we cannot accurately trace the location of your planets and you delete the locations from your computers."

"That's so you bastards can't find our people!" Kyle snapped. "But you found a way."

"I learned of an operation truth put into action to try and find your people. He had the Kig-Yar make an alliance with a band of refugees from one of your colonies. They began trading Covenant weapons weapons to them and they sent them to their allies in the rest of your colonies. Truth used these weapons to gain the location of three of your worlds before your UNSC discovered what they were doing and stopped them. The survivors spoke of three gray armored humans that fought them, the same that captured me. We knew that most of these humans used a slipspace capable asteroid to escape and so I sent Kig-Yar raiders I could trust to find the remaining contacts, then it was simply a matter of meeting them and arranging transport to the world you call Reach. If I can convince your leaders of this offer then it is only a matter of traveling to high charity to present this to the high council. Your species is perhaps the key to fulfilling the great..."

"journey" Kyle interrupted, which shocked obligation. "Its your turn to be shocked, your great journey is false. There is no divine beyond waiting for you, the Forerunners never went there, they're all dead."

"This is simple heresy" said obligation. "I am trying to tell you that you must embrace the great journey if this conflict is to end.

"Its fake, your kind got it all wrong!"

"Explain, then" said obligation.

"You know about the flood?" Kyle asked.

"Yes, but how do you know of this, you speak it as if you've studied the sacred texts? And not even a cowardly Unggoy would reveal this to you."

"I know everything, the Forerunners, that dreadnought you have in the center of High Charity, the great journey.... Halo."

Obligation stood up in shock of Kyle's knowledge, at a loss of words.

"You know that the Forerunners fought the flood, they were a parasitic race that fed on every sentient life form it could find. The Forerunners couldn't stop them, so what would you do in their position?"

"The same way we treat an infection" said obligation. "We simply starve out the parasite of its food suppl..." obligation stopped short when she realized the truth, it was all starting to make sense.

"The Forerunners had to starve out the flood, so they built the Halos. They're not some gateway into the divine, they're weapons designed to kill every sentient life form. Your great journey is the final solution to the flood."

"Everything you've said is certainly plausible, but this would mean the end of the Covenant" said obligation. "What of the forerunners, certainly they wouldn't doom themselves by activating the rings?"

"They had a plan to survive, but couldn't implement it because the flood was close to victory. They saved my species and yours from extinction by taking us to the ark which is out of the range of the halos."

Obligation slumped down into her seat, "please leave me, I must meditate on what to do next."

Kyle nodded and left the prophet there, but when he entered the hall he was met by Jai who shoved him against the wall.

"I saw all that!" he barked. "You tell me how you knew all that when we barely know why the Covenant are at war with us!?"

--

Kyle reluctantly agreed to tell Jai the truth so he brought Jai to the mess hall and after Sabrina cut off all communication and locked the doors, Kyle began to explain everything to him, who he really was and how he got here. When he was finished, Jai was dumbstruck.

"So everything you told me about how you got here, was false?"

"No, the story I told you back on Reach was the truth, I just left out the details."

"So what you said about ONI being after you and Halsey offering the Spartan program as a way out, that was all true?"

"Yes" Kyle replied. "I have no idea who would send me here or why, I never had the time to try and figure it out."

"What about gray team, were we in one of these books?"

"No, there was one coming out that November about where you were" Kyle said. "You guys supposedly disappeared in 2551."

"What about the rest of the Spartans, the Chief?"

"Most died when Reach fell a year later, that's when the Chief found Halo."

"So we lost the war then?"

"No, true we lost Reach and almost lost Earth but its because of what I said to obligation, that information coming out. It fractures the Covenant and we defeat them finally, but at a cost."

"What?"

"All of us, the Spartan-IIs. Not counting me there were only four left, and they were cut off from the UNSC, stranded."

"So you could probably change all this if you wanted to" said Jai.

"I've tried, believe me" said Kyle. "Harvest, Sam, all I tried to stop and it all happened anyway.

"That's no reason to stop" said Jai. "If what you said about us and the other Spartans, Reach... if all of this is true then you have the power to stop it from happening. I mean your presence here is enough proof that history has been changed."

"Jai, you need to promise me you will never talk to anyone about this, like I promised never to talk about how you felt about Adriana. This stays between us."

"Agreed" said Jai. "I'm not going to let ONI go after one of my friends if I have anything to say about it, plus you can do more from your current position. But for now we should focus on what we have for now, like the rebels. Tomorrow I want you to question those two again, find out how obligation got to them, if there's a transportation network all the way back to the Covenant homeworld we could exploit it, end this war before everything you told me comes true."

* * *

April 21, 2540

location: Adara system, UNSC prowler _Mischa_

It was a little awkward talking to Jai after their talk yesterday, but he seemed as normal as ever per Kyle's promise. Kyle went to see the rebels first thing and like before, he selected Sheppard and his friend. They used the mess hall due to obligation still meditating in the conference room.

"I've spoken to your Covenant friend" Kyle said to Sheppard. "You're going to tell me how she managed to reach you from Covenant space."

"We have no intention of telling you UNSC pigs anything!" The woman spat.

"Beck, let me do the talking here" said Sheppard.

"No!" she replied. "Those bastards killed my husband, he was all I had left after she died."

"You still have me" Sheppard said to her. She responded by taking his hand in hers.

"Can we get over the emotional moment and get to business, if you tell me what I want to know then we can talk about leniency."

"You'd let us go?" Sheppard asked.

"We might, providing you cooperate with us" Kyle replied.

"How about it, Beck?"

"Simon, you of all people know what his kind did to us. ONI, you people and your pet Spartans make me sick!" She spat at Kyle.

"I didn't get your name?" Simon asked.

"Its Kyle" he replied.

"Well, Kyle, I have to apologize for my friend's behavior" said Sheppard. "She had a tough life when she was younger. Her daughter died and her husband was killed a year later in an accidental misfire by UNSC forces."

"You bastards got the wrong damned intel!" she yelled at Kyle. "He was in a restaurant when ONI blew it up, calling it an insurrectionist stronghold. He was an accountant at a technology firm!"

"She joined the URF to get back at the UNSC, became what she said her husband wasn't?" Kyle asked.

"I'd die for my cause" she said. "You people took everything I had left, what makes you think I'd ever cooperate with you?"

"Look, I'm sorry you lost your husband and daughter, I am" said Kyle. "But you need to realize that the Covenant want our entire race dead, they don't care if its URF or UNSC they're killing."

"You're not a parent, you don't know what its like to loose a kid" she said. "My little girl was six when she died... my little Kelly."

"Excuse me?" Kyle said as he sat up in his chair.

"Kelly, that was my daughter's name" she said.

"How did she die?" Kyle asked in a more serious tone.

"Metabolic cascade failure" she replied. "The doctors said it was probably genetic". She started to sniffle and she ran her hands through her hair which had started to gray, scratching her scalp.

"I think that's enough questioning for today" said Sheppard. "Please just take us back to our room."

Kyle complied and led the two them back to their room, the woman Sheppard had called Beck was nearly in tears at the memory of her past life, a memory that was troubling Kyle to his core. He returned to the mess hall later with a field forensic kit. Kyle very closely scrutinized the table they had sat at earlier until he found what he was looking for, a strand of hair from that woman. It most likely fell out when she scratched her head earlier. Kyle collected the strand with a pair of tweezers and slipped it into a plastic bag. Kyle took it to the infirmary and had Sabrina call Adriana down.

"What's the big emergency?" She asked.

"Sabrina, initiate privacy mode" Kyle ordered. This would isolate the infirmary from outside communication, eavesdropping and more importantly, Sabrina herself.

"Kyle, what's going on?" She asked.

"Do you have the records of the other Spartans aboard, specifically their DNA?"

"Yeah, its in gray team's personal directory" said Adriana. "Sabrina doesn't have access to it if you're wondering. What do you need?"

Kyle handed her the bag with the hair, "run this against SPARTAN-087's DNA."

"what am I looking for?"

"Just run a baseline comparison, and don't tell anyone."

"You got it" Adriana replied. "This should only take a few minutes. I'll come get you when its done."

Kyle left the infirmary and was on his way to his room when Jai ordered him to the bridge. Kyle arrived to find Mike once again at the helm and Jai was scrutinizing one of the screens.

"We have a problem" said Jai as he piped the feed into the main display. A sensor grid of the system came up and a red dot was highlighted on the system's edge.

"We laid a series of sensor drones when we arrived" Mike explained. "We have a real time picture of the entire solar system. That dot is a Covenant carrier that exited slipspace a few minutes ago, at its current speed it'll reach Adara in under three hours."

Jai whispered to Kyle, "I wish you knew everything that was going to happen, especially now."

"Me too" Kyle replied.

Suddenly, Adriana burst onto the bridge holding a piece of paper, she motioned for Kyle to come over to her. Kyle moved to the back of he bridge and Adriana showed him the paper, it was a printout of the DNA test.

"I got a match for half of Kelly's base pair sequences" she said. "Whoever this hair belongs to is most likely Kelly's mother."

"Match certainty?"

98.6 percent probability Adriana replied. Its that rebel woman isn't it? How did you know?

"Things she said made me suspect" Kyle replied.

"Kyle, none of us have been able to connect to our parents, I can't even remember mine. What's going to happen when we bring her back, do we even tell anyone?"

"No we don't, especially ONI and Doctor Halsey."

"Kyle, do our parents even know what happened to us?"

"No" Kyle replied. "Mine sure as hell don't, we were trained to forget, ever wonder why you were taken at six?"

"So we'd be more impressionable" Adriana said, she rubbed the side of her head. "Kyle, this is too big of a decision for just us to make, do we reunite the two of them? Shouldn't she know where her daughter has been all these years?"

"They faked our deaths" said Kyle. "your parents, her mother, they think you're all dead. Typical ONI black ops."

Adriana surprised Kyle, he imagined she'd take the truth that she had been lied to by Halsey rather bad, but she took it rather well. It showed Kyle that the Spartans really didn't care, Halsey had obviously taken steps to ensure if the Spartans ever did find out the truth, they wouldn't react badly to it. She had probably used the same subliminal brainwashing that she used on Kyle during his training.

"Kyle, do we tell her about Kelly?" She asked again.

Kyle knew this decision was to big for him, it should be Kelly's decision, but she wasn't here and Kyle had to make a choice. "I'll tell her, keep this between us."

"no problem" Adriana replied.

--

This situation was slowly spiraling out of control, with a Covenant carrier on the way it was more than likely that Adara would fall within the day. Kyle decided to handle one situation at a time so while gray team was coming up with a strategy for dealing with the Covenant, Kyle went to see the rebel woman.

"I need to speak to you, alone" Kyle said to her.

She reluctantly agreed and followed Kyle down to the mess hall. Kyle got her a glass of water before joining her at the table.

"Ma'am, how old was your daughter when she died?"

"Six" she replied. "So is this your plan now, relate to my sympathetic cause? You ONI types are all the same, you'd have better luck having one of those Spartans talk to me."

Kyle chuckled, "who do you think you've been talking to?"

Do you expect me to believe that you're a spart... she stopped short as Kyle took one of the utensils off the table and bent it in half. She picked it up and tried to unbend it herself, to make sure it was actual metal, but with no luck. "You really are one!"

"That's not why you're here though. When your daughter died, did you notice any unusual behavior out of her?"

"The day we took her to the hospital was because she simply wouldn't respond to us, it was like she wasn't even in there. Kelly would wake up and she could just barely walk, but wouldn't talk, wouldn't smile, it was like she was an empty shell."

"That's because she was" Kyle said. "Do you know why we can't flash clone an entire human?"

"I guess you don't know who you're talking to" she said. "I'm a doctor with the URF and we can't flash clone an entire human because the cells mature too fast and they eventually suffer from..." she stopped short when she realized the implication of her words."

"Metabolic cascade failure" Kyle finished for her. "Your daughter was flash cloned, kidnapped and replaced with the clone."

"Why the hell would anyone do this?"

"For the same reason I was" Kyle lied. "To become Spartans. The UNSC deemed this project necessary enough to kidnap seventy-five children from their families, replace them with clones and train them from age six to be the best soldiers humanity could offer."

"Do you expect me to believe that the UNSC would be so cruel as to forcibly take children from their families, replace them with clones that would eventually die and cause all their parents so much grief!"

"Here" Kyle said as he held out a photo. "Take it!" Kyle barked.

She took the photo.

"Look at the person on the far right" Kyle said.

"But, this is impossible!" she muttered.

"That picture was taken when she was fifteen" Kyle explained.

"Her hair" she muttered. "She kept begging me to get it dyed blue, I finally caved and got it done as a birthday present. Why did she shave it off?"

"Her hair fell out as part of her augmentations, the ones that give us our superhuman strength. Its grown back, she decided to keep it brown though."

"This other person in the bed, its you!" she said. "You know Kelly?"

"She means a great deal to me, ma'am, which is why I thought you deserved to know."

"Kelly has to be at least 29 by now. What is she like?"

"She's the fastest Spartan" Kyle said. "She also the jokester of the team, she can always crack a joke at our situation". Kyle noticed she had started to cry, he didn't know if it was the right thing to do but he got up and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way, ma'am."

"don't, this is the happiest moment of my life, to know that my little girl is still alive."

"I have some bad news though, the Covenant are here. They entered his system a half hour ago on a direct course for Adara."

"You don't think they're here for obligation?"

"Its more than likely" said Kyle. "I'll take you back to your room, then have a talk with her."

--

Kyle entered the briefing room to find the prophet of obligation right where he had left her the day before. She immediately noticed Kyle's presence.

"You have returned" she said.

"Save it, there's a Covenant carrier in system heading for the planet!" Said Kyle. "Either they're tracking you down or you led them here!"

"My intentions are sincere" said obligation. "Let me talk to this carrier, I might be able to convince it to stand down."

"You have one chance" said Kyle as he drew his M6D and pointed toward the door. Obligation walked in front of Kyle all the way to the bridge. When they entered, Jai and Adriana pulled their weapons on the prophet.

"Don't fire, she's here to help!" Kyle said.

"She's probably the reason that carrier is here."

"Then give me the chance to rectify the situation" said obligation. "Open a communication channel with that ship, I can get it to withdraw."

"If I do that then they'll easily be able to trace it back here" said Jai.

"Not necessarily" said Mike. "I can route the transmission through our sensor drones, it would take them too long to trace."

"Do it" Jai said reluctantly.

It took Mike a few minutes to get everything in order, and when he was ready obligation approached the main display.

"_This is the seeker of truth, who dare uses the prophet's channel?" _

Obligation's translator obviously was able to translate even speech over COM links.

"I'm getting a video packet" said Mike.

"Put it up" said Jai.

On the main display, the interior of the carrier's bridge appeared. There were grunts, engineers but more importantly, elites. One stood out in particular, he sat in a hovering chair at the center of the bridge and wore the gold armor of a zealot shipmaster.

"Thel 'Vadamee" said obligation. "Why have you entered this system?"

"_Why do you not activate your viewer, prophetess?"_ Thel asked.

"That is none of your concern, leave this system immediately!"

"_I am under orders from the prophet of truth himself to retrieve you and bring you back to High Charity, after which this human filth is exterminated."_

"You will not harm the human inhabitants of this world" said obligation.

"_And why should I do that?"_

Obligation nodded to Mike who sent a return video packet to the Covenant carrier, allowing for two way visual communication. There were hushed whispers from some of the bridge crew followed by Thel rising from his seat.

"_What is the meaning of this! Do the humans keep you captive?" _

"I came here under my own authority to speak with the humans, shipmaster" said obligation. "They have not coerced me in any means, now leave this system and do not return!"

"_I cannot do that, prophetess" _said Thel. "_Give us your location so that we may retrieve you and set fire to the human's world." _

"Hey, squid face!" Said Kyle as he walked forward. "My understanding of your twisted religion is you must obey her commands."

"_Keep your tongue, human filth!"_ Thel spat back.

I" didn't imagine you'd know who I was. You remember your buddy with the fancy gray armor from Harvest, the one who was killed single handedly?"

"_Demon"_ Thel hissed. The communication channel closed after that.

"You were the one who killed The Arbiter and destroyed the relic?" Obligation asked.

"That's me" Kyle replied. "So what do we do now?"

"We leave this system" said Sabrina. "Now!"

"Cut our nukes loose first and give me a randomized vector out of the system" said Jai.

"Did I here you say you have nukes aboard?" said Simon Sheppard as he and his band of rebels stood at the doors to the bridge, all armed. They hand somehow been able to escape, raid the armory and make it to the bridge undetected.

"How did you get out?" Kyle asked as he drew his weapon.

"We could have escaped any time we wanted" said Sheppard. "Your AI is good, but not that good."

"Why won't you fight?" One of the other rebels asked.

"In case you didn't notice, we're in a prowler" said Adriana.

"You said you had nuclear warheads, what kind?"

"Shivas, three of them" said Mike, still seated at the helm. "We need to jettison them or they'll put off Cherenkov radiation when we jump to slipspace, the Covenant will easily be able to follow us."

"Then give them to us" said Beck. "We'll use them against the Covenant."

"Just how would you do that?" Kyle asked.

"Me" said obligation. "Use me as bait, lure that ship close and smuggle your explosive weapons aboard."

"If we just take out this carrier, they'll send more" said Adriana. "Adara will fall either way."

"There may be another way then" said obligation. "If you cannot evacuate the inhabitants then I will simply stay on the planet, they won't as you call it 'glass' the planet if they think I'm still down there."

"What if they just land troops to retrieve you?" Said Kyle.

"Then we use your 'nukes' on them" said obligation. "I take it their destructive power is quite large?

"Fifty megatons" each said Mike.

"Let us use your pelican to return to Adara" said Sheppard. "Please"

--

Kyle climbed out of the pelican through the hatch in the roof and back into the prowler. He was back in his armor, helping Sheppard and the rebels load the three Shiva warheads, all of the small arms and explosives aboard the prowler into the pelican. Jai, Adriana, Sheppard and Beck were inventorying the last of the equipment while the other rebels finished securing it down in the pelican. Mike came down the hall, escorting obligation who was now using her gravity belt and was given back her plasma pistol.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Kyle asked.

"I must. It is somewhat my fault for stepping down and allowing those three access to the throne she said. Assuming they land troops I might be able to convince others of the information you gave me, Kyle. The very fact that I have sided with you could convince the councilors to give up this foolish war. "

"But your three children..."

"are well taken care of" said obligation. "I have seen to that", she extended her hand and Kyle took it gently in his gauntleted one. Obligation leaned her head closer to Kyle's helmet and lowered her voice to a bare whisper.

"You carry a great pain inside you, Kyle. One day soon, you will face it."

She drifted over to the open hatch in the floor, adjusted her gravity belt and floated down the access tube. Sheppard bid his goodbyes to gray team and went down the tube next. Beck came over to Kyle and took him aside.

"Here" she said as she gave Kyle back his photo and a piece of paper along with it. "Give that to my daughter."

"Ma'am, why don't you just come with us, you can see Kelly again?"

"I have a duty to my people, like she does to hers" Beck replied. "And stop calling me ma'am, my name is Rebbecca. I want to see her again more than you can imagine, but there is no way the UNSC can let that happen, what I'm doing is good for both of us. And besides, I know she's in good hands."

"I'm sorry?"

She raised an eyebrow, "I saw the way you blushed slightly when you talked about Kelly, mother knows best. You care about her more than the other Spartans, and I couldn't think of a better man for her, take good care of her for me."

"I will" Kyle replied.

"Goodbye, Kyle" Rebbecca said as she descended the ladder and closed the pelican's hatch. Kyle sealed the prowler's door and cut the docking tendril. Once that was finished, Kyle joined Jai, Adriana and Mike on the bridge. They were over Adara and Jai had ordered extreme silent running, all four Spartans were in their MJOLNIR armor because Jai ordered even the life support disabled to reduce any power emissions from their stealth ship. They watched the monitors as the pelican began its re-entry burn and not five minutes later, the Covenant carrier arrived, but it didn't start glassing the planet, it did however fire on the orbital instillations and begin launching dropships to the surface.

"I think that proves her point" said Jai. "Get us out of here".

Mike activated his console and lit the slipspace engines, the craft pushed its way into the relative safety of slipspace and the power immediately returned as they secured from silent running. Kyle looked down at the paper that Rebbecca had given him, it was a letter, but Kyle didn't read it. Instead he moved to the back of the bridge and secured the picture back in his bag, and the letter he tucked into the folds of his diary for safe keeping. It would be two days in slipspace before they would drop out and Sabrina would align course for Reach, which would take another three weeks. All of it, gray team and Kyle would spend in cryo sleep.

* * *

May 13, 2540

location: Epsilon Eridani system, Reach- UNSC military complex

Kyle and gray team had just been debriefed on their mission at Adara, apparently the colonial administration had been trying to contact Adara for over a month and after what Kyle reported, the UNSC decided to just write that world off as glassed. Jai and Kyle had left details out, like certain parts with the prophetess of obligation in order to keep Kyle's secret. Adriana also didn't tell ONI about Kelly's mother. When the debrief was finished, gray team bid their goodbyes to Kyle and set off for their prowler, having been assigned yet another mission behind enemy lines. Kyle went out into the hall and was immediately greeted by another green armored Spartan as she leaped into Kyle's arms.

"What's this I here about you having fun while being MIA at the same time?" Kelly asked.

"Its good to see you too, Kelly" said Kyle as he let her down.

"I'm glad you're back, Linda was starting to get worried."

"That doesn't sound like Linda" said Kyle.

"Ok, maybe I was a bit worried" Kelly admitted in her jokingly tone. "So did anything big happen or is ONI making you shut up on the whole matter?"

"Sorry, confidential as always" said Kyle. He wanted to tell Kelly about her mother and the letter, but now didn't seem like the right time. _One day I'll give it to her_ Kyle said to himself as he walked down the hall with Kelly.

"By the way, why is your armor all gray?" Kelly asked.


	14. Chapter 14: have you ever seen the rain?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 14: have you ever seen the rain?**

May 25, 2544

location: UNSC cruiser _marathon_ in slipspace

_was it my fault?_ Kyle wondered as he lifted weights in the gym of the cruiser. Kyle had to admire the _marathon_ class, they had a wide range of recreational facilities, all of them Kyle pretty much had to himself due to most of the regular crew, Marines and thankfully the ODSTs in cryo stasis. The Chief Medical Officer had instructed Kyle to exercise daily after his near death experience back on Miridem, the elite that had stabbed him. Kyle had been wondering if what happened to Cassandra and Shelia was his fault? He was leading them through the ONI complex, he took Halsey's recommendation that they try the access corridor to the motor pool. He should have cautioned Shelia, shouldn't have stopped the warthog where the ghost could have snuck up on them. Kyle banished the thought from his mind, only to have it resurface a moment later. Kyle set the weights down and moved over to the bench press, loaded the weights and began lifting. This strained his recently stitched abs and sent lances of pain through his abdomen.

"Kyle?" Kelly asked as she walked over to him. Kyle continued with his weight lifting and didn't look up at her.

"Kyle, look at me" Kelly said.

He finally looked over in her direction, she was dressed in sweats and had obviously just arrived for a workout. Kyle still kept lifting the weights as she continued.

"You haven't talked to anyone for over a day, not since you got out of the coma. If something is bugging you, you can tell me."

"Its nothing, Kelly, get off my case" Kyle replied as he began pumping iron faster, the pain in his abdomen getting worse.

"I've know you too long to just walk away, I can tell when you're really bothered, so what is it?" Kelly pressured.

"I said its nothing!" Kyle barked as the pain got worse and he kept lifting the weights. Kelly finally grabbed hold of the weights and placed them back on the rack.

"Enough" she said. "I'm taking you to the infirmary."

"I'm not sick" Kyle growled.

"You're bleeding" Kelly said as she pointed to Kyle's tanktop, there was a red stain right over his abdomen. "You probably tore your stitches again" she said as she took Kyle's arm and tried to lead him to the door.

"I can walk there myself" Kyle muttered as he wrenched free of her grasp and went to the door. Kelly stood there for a moment before rubbing her temples and following Kyle out, but not to the infirmary. Kelly went down to the medlab which Halsey had claimed as her area during their stay on the _marathon. _Kelly found Halsey surrounded by Styrofoam cups, looking at what appeared to be armor schematics on a monitor. She shut off the display and turned around in her chair to face Kelly.

"Is something wrong?" She asked.

"I need your help on something" Kelly said.

Halsey looked Kelly over in her current attire and said, "I'm afraid I would be much of a good spotter for your workouts."

"Its not that" Kelly said as she sighed, her face changed to a more regretful and desperate one. Halsey realized what she meant and raised an eyebrow.

"You're having difficulties dealing with your new found feelings, am I right?"

"Its been a bit awkward, being around him on a daily basis. He was a little angry towards me a few minutes ago, in the gym. He was lifting weights a little too hard and he tore his stitches, I tried to help him to the infirmary but he shoved me away."

"Was he bleeding seriously?" Halsey asked.

"It didn't look like it" said Kelly. "But what if he stays angry at me for that?"

"Kelly, it was a simple disagreement, people have them all the time" said Halsey. "Your friendship with him is in no danger of being fractured."

"Doctor, how do I... you know, move things up, our relationship I mean?" Kelly asked.

"You want to take your friendship with Kyle to the next level?" Halsey clarified. "What if he doesn't want to, what if he doesn't feel the same way?"

"I... never thought of it" Kelly muttered.

"I'm not saying you should give up" said Halsey. "Kelly, love is a very complex emotion that doesn't involve just you, but everyone around you. It can either lead to the best time you'll have in your entire life, or it can hurt you, I know. Sometimes the first person you fall in love with won't necessarily turn out to be 'the one'. Love can happen as quickly as a day or it can be gradual, which is your case. What I am trying to tell you is to take things slow, let your relationship develop, just because you're ready for a relationship doesn't mean he is."

--

Kyle sat shirtless on one of the infirmary beds as the doctor stitched him back up.

"You're lucky it was only three of them" said the Doctor. "If anymore had come loose then you could have bled to death."

"I doubt that" said Kyle.

"Even Spartans have a limit" said the Doctor. "I imagine you tore these three exercising, I said not to take it too hard."

The Doctor finished his stitches and slapped a bandage over Kyle's wound. Kyle stood up and tossed his shirt over his shoulder, not wanting to draw attention to the blood stain by wearing it.

"Now take it easy for the next few days" said the Doctor. "You can continue to exercise, but do it at an easier rate."

Kyle nodded and left the infirmary, but had to pass through the temporary morgue set up in the next room. There were several body bags stacked on top of one another, Marines who were killed on the surface of Miridem. None of them bore the body of Shelia since there was noting left of her that Kyle and Cassandra could retrieve, and what about Cassandra? Kyle thought it was his fault that she was injured. He quickly went past the bodies and into the corridor, leaned up against the bulkhead and took several deep breaths. He was unaware he was being watched from down the hall by Kelly who had hoped to catch him just coming out of the infirmary. She could tell something was really bothering him by the way he was acting, he put a hand on the side of his head and slumped down to the floor. Kelly thought she herd a sniffle coming from him. She leaned around the corner a little more but her foot hit a tool box that had been left on the floor by an engineer. Kelly pulled her head back just as Kyle's snapped up in her direction. Kelly could pick up Kyle's footsteps as he headed for her position, so Kelly darted down the hall and ducked into a supply closet just as Kyle came around the corner, seeing nothing but an empty corridor.

_What am I doing hiding?_ Kelly thought. _I should just tell him I was concerned and wanted to see how he was doing_. Kelly stepped out of the supply closet, but Kyle had already left.

--

Kyle had returned to the room he'd been assigned and collapsed on the bed, not even bothering to toss his blood stained shirt in the FRS. He simply lay sprawled across the bed and quickly drifted off to sleep, dreaming of the last time he'd felt this much guilt. But it was rather interesting what his mind deemed most guilty moment.

* * *

August 5, 2008

location: Sol system, Earth- Alexandria, VA

Kyle sat at his desk, looking over his summer vacation English class assignment his English teacher, Esteban McDowell had given them the last day of school. Kyle often procrastinated when it came to his English assignments, which made English his poorest subject.

"Kyle, your girlfriend is here" Josh called up the stairs.

"You call her by her name!" Kyle yelled back.

"Kyle, cut your brother some slack" said Catlin as she entered his room and shut the door.

"Hey, Katie" Kyle said as he got out of his chair and hugged her. Strangely, she didn't return the hug so Kyle let go and took a step back.

"Katie, is there something wrong?"

"No" Catlin replied quickly. "I just needed to talk to you about something."

"Ok, then talk" Kyle said. "If you're having a problem you know I can always be here to help."

"That's just it, Kyle" said Catlin. "The problem is us."

"Catlin... don't" Kyle muttered.

"Look, Kyle, I just don't think this is working out" Catlin said.

Kyle sat down at the foot of his bed and ran his hands through his hair, why was she breaking up with him? Kyle hadn't done anything wrong during their relationship, he always kept his dates, was always around, why is she doing this now? Catlin sat down next to Kyle and griped his hand.

"I didn't mean to hurt you" she whispered.

"Then why are you doing this?"

"Because... I have a lot going on right now, and I don't think its right for me to have a relationship" said Catlin. "Kyle, I still want to be your friend if you'll let me. I don't want to loose you completely."

"You should have thought of that before deciding to dump me" Kyle muttered.

"Kyle, I'm not dumping you Catlin said. I just want to go back to being friends."

Kyle sat there, unresponsive and unmoved by Catlin's reassuring words.

"Catlin... I think you should go" Kyle muttered.

"Kyle, I..."

"just go" Kyle said.

Catlin let go of Kyle's hand and stood up, heading for the door. Catlin pulled it open and went into the hall, but hesitated for a moment as she turned back to look at Kyle. He still hung his head low and he was staring at his left hand, the one Catlin held moments earlier. Catlin knew this was for the best so she shut the door and didn't look back. Kyle plopped back on his bed when her herd the door shut, convinced this was all his fault.

* * *

May 26, 2544

location: UNSC cruiser _marathon_ in slipspace

Kyle sat down to his breakfast in the relativity empty mess hall at a table in the back. He twiddled his food around with his fork but didn't have the appetite to eat it. He saw another tray being placed on the opposite side of the table, so he looked up to find Kelly sitting down across from him.

"You looked a little lonely" she said.

"I don't need company" Kyle muttered.

"Kyle, just please tell me what's wrong" Kelly said. "You haven't been yourself since Miridem."

"I keep thinking its all my fault" Kyle said.

"You and I both know that's wrong" Kelly replied. "There was no way you could have known that..."

"yes I should!" Kyle barked at her. "I was supposed to have cautioned Shelia before she went out there. I shouldn't have stopped the warthog. Cassandra can't fight anymore because of me."

"That's not true" Kelly said to him.

"Yes it is!" Kyle yelled before he stormed out of the mess hall. Kyle must have walked almost half the length of the ship before he decided to head to the gym and blow off some steam. He was almost to the gym when he was met by Doctor Halsey in the corridor.

"I was watching you on the security feeds" she said to him. "I herd what you said to Kelly in the mess."

"So now you're spying on me, is that it?" Kyle asked harshly.

"I'm concerned, like Kelly is" Halsey said. "Your behavior since you got out of your coma has been showing increasing signs of depression."

"You know damn well why that is!" Kyle snapped.

"Kyle, as I'm sure you've been told, it wasn't your fault at all."

"You weren't ther..." Kyle stopped short because he remembered Halsey bore full witness to what happened. Kyle started to feel sorry about being harsh to her.

"Cassandra has been asking to see you" Halsey muttered.

--

At Halsey's suggestion, Kyle went down to the intensive care section of the cruiser's medical center. Inside one of the private wards was a cylindrical, neutral buoyancy tank. Inside was the battered and twisted body of Cassandra. Her injuries were caused by high speed shrapnel that penetrated her armor, one such piece was responsible for her partial paralysis. Another nicked her armor's hydrostatic controls and caused the gel to superheat and melt through into direct contact with her skin. She suffered massive third degree burns to most of her body. Parts of her skin were simply just missing and Kyle could clearly see her musculature, a couple bones were also exposed. Kyle moved over to where her face was, her hair had been burned off along with most of her scalp, the back of her skull was exposed. A mask covered most of her lower mouth, and she was surprisingly alert as her eyes followed Kyle as he stood in front of her.

"It's about time you showed up" she said, her voice was weak, frail and a bit raspy.

"How... how are you doing in there?"

"Fine, under the circumstances. They said my right leg is the paralyzed one, I'll be lucky if I can even use a wheelchair with all the skin grafts I'll need."

"What did they put on a timeframe for recovery?" Kyle asked.

"With our medical technology, ten years... maybe more."

"Cassie, I am so sorry" Kyle said. "I did this to you."

"Some poor elite looking for a lucky kill did this to me" Cassandra said defiantly. "Don't you even start blaming yourself."

"That elite wouldn't have gotten his kill if I didn't stop the hog."

"You were concerned for Halsey" Cassandra assured him. "At those speeds, the wind chill alone could have caused frostbite."

"Cassie, don't put the blame away from where it truly lies" Kyle said. "I should be the one being discharged from the Spartan program, I should be floating around in a tank."

"Please, your little flesh wound from that energy sword was worse than mine" Cassandra said, trying to add a bit of humor to Kyle's somber mood with no success.

"I'm a threat to everyone" Kyle said. "I can't even command a team without incurring casualties, what kind of Commander is that."

"Any other one" Cassandra said. "We loose people we care about everyday."

"It doesn't matter anymore" Kyle said. "I'm ending this."

Cassandra saw him walk to the back of the room and take something off one of the trays before leaving the infirmary. She couldn't tell what it was due to her being submerged in the tank, but what he said gave her a bad feeling, she had to tell someone before he did something drastic.

--

Kelly burst into Halsey's lab just as she got back from talking to Kyle in the hall.

"Doctor, I don't think I can do this" Kelly said.

"What are you talking about?" Halsey asked.

"Kyle, I can't keep feeling this way about him" said Kelly. "I'm starting to be overly caring of him, I'm going out of my way to make sure he's ok every day. What if I choose him over something else that's important, like a mission?"

Halsey let out a sigh as she removed her glasses. "Kelly, you need to understand you're 32 years old now, a grown woman. Love is something that is bound to happen to everyone and we all learn to deal with it in one form or another. It can sometimes frighten you, all these strange emotions, but we all learn to deal with it in the end."

She removed a vial from a nearby container and held it up.

"Remember how I said you had hormones in your system that explained your feelings, this is a chemical I've been working on that will suppress those hormones."

"I'll stop loving Kyle if I take it?" Kelly asked.

"This is designed to counter your physical attraction to him" said Halsey. "But that is one of the big questions about love, is it just a physical attraction or is it something deeper? Either way, I can't be certain that if you take this, your feelings for Kyle will disappear. Ultimately, I'm going to leave it up to you if you want to take it."

"I think..." Kelly started before they were interrupted by the voice of the ship's AI.

"_Code 5, medical emergency in the gymnasium. Repeat, code 5, medical team to the gymnasium." _

"That's up one level" said Halsey.

Kelly and Halsey rushed out of the infirmary and to a nearby lift to see if they could help the med team out. When they arrived, the med team hadn't made it there yet so Halsey prepared to enter the gym, but the door was frozen. Halsey made for the keypad next to the door, but there was no need as Kelly pried the doors apart with her bare hands. She opened the doors wide enough for Halsey to squeeze through, the scientist entered the gym and Kelly let the doors shut, figuring Halsey would unlock them from the inside. It took the Doctor a full minute to unlock the door before Kelly was able to enter. Kelly wondered what had taken her so long to unlock the door, and got her answer. Halsey was kneeling next to Kyle who was sprawled out on the floor, in a pool of his own blood. There was a surgical scalpel lodged in his abdomen, right where his stab wound was. Kyle's right hand held the scalpel loosely.

"He's unresponsive" Halsey said as she tried to shake him awake. She felt his neck for a pulse, "he's alive!"

"doctor, who did this, who stabbed him?" Kelly asked, ready to attack whoever did this to him.

"No one attacked him" Halsey said to her. "This looks like a suicide attempt, Kyle tried to kill himself."

Kelly froze where she stood, and the whole world seemed to go by without her even noticing. Why would he kill himself? She was pushed out of the way by the med team as they arrived and loaded Kyle onto a gurney. Halsey assisted them in removing the scalpel and filling his wound with biofoam. They rolled the gurney out of the gym and to the infirmary, Kelly still stood there, in shock about what she saw.

"Why would you do it, Kyle?" She whispered to herself.

--

Kyle could feel himself on the edge of life and death, he was moving, that much he knew. There were voices, one sounded like Halsey's, was he stopped by them? Kyle felt his mind slip out of that thought and into oblivion where he dreamed again.

* * *

August 5, 2008

location: Sol system, Earth- Alexandria, VA

Marlyn Stevens went up the stairs and down the hall of her home to her son's room. Her youngest son, Joshua, had told her when she got home that Kyle's girlfriend had come over while she was out, and then left practically in tears. Joshua also said Kyle hadn't come out since. Marlyn approached the door and knocked softly, only to discover the door was opened only a crack. The door was slightly ajar now, and she could see Kyle laying on his side on his bed, facing the window. It was raining fairly heavily now and they could hear the drops as they hit the window. Marlyn pushed the door open the rest of the way and went inside, shutting the door behind her so Joshua couldn't eavesdrop.

"Kyle?" She said as she nudged him a bit, figuring he was asleep. Kyle happened to be awake and he looked over at his mother.

"Kyle, did something happen today with Catlin?" She asked.

"She dumped me, mom" Kyle muttered. "Didn't even say why, but I know it was my fault."

"Do you know what you did?" She asked.

"That's the thing, I don't. I don't know what I did to her" Kyle replied.

"Oh, Kyle" Marlyn said as she pulled her son to sit up right, and she put an arm around him. "Its not your fault, sometimes women are afraid of commitment or a long term relationship. Love can be kind of scary. The first girl you fall in love with won't necessarily turn out to be the one you want to spend the rest of your life with. I know what that's like."

"You loved someone before dad?" Kyle asked.

"I did she replied. He was a soldier too, when he died I thought I'd never love anyone else again, then I met your father. Kyle, what I'm trying to tell you is that this isn't the end, who knows, you and Catlin could patch things together down the road."

"Thanks, mom" Kyle whispered. "Mom, how bad was it when you were on your own?"

"Considering I had no family when he died, I wasn't so great, but I have the three of you and your father now. Even if you never get things working with Catlin, just remember you have us. And don't blame yourself for this, everyone screws up but its not always just your fault."

* * *

May 27, 2544

location: UNSC cruiser _marathon_ in slipspace

Kyle could feel himself waking up, ever so slowly. The feeling returned in his extremities, including a lance of pain where he... Kyle opened his right eye a crack and caught sight of Kelly sitting next to his bed. She was holding his right hand in her own, her thumb gently massaged the top of his hand. Kyle opened his eyes all the way and Kelly let go of his hand.

"That's twice in one week, you know" she said. "Why did you do it, Kyle?"

Kyle simply lay there in the bed, afraid of what they would do to him for attempting suicide. He would most likely be discharged for mental instability, that wouldn't be so bad, would it? At least he couldn't hurt his friends anymore.

"Kyle, please just talk to me?" Kelly asked him. "I want to help you, but you've got to say something... please. There had to be some way of getting him to listen, then Kelly thought of it, "I care about what happens to you Kyle, because..." Kelly clammed up at the last second, she couldn't muster the will, a Spartan who faces death a thousand times a day is afraid to say three simple words that could help her friend. She quickly thought of something else to say. "You and John are all I have left, my only two friends. I don't want to loose you."

Kyle was unmoved by Kelly's words, consumed in guilt. Kelly had all but given up hope. Halsey arrived 20 minutes later to relieve Kelly, they were taking turns on Kyle's suicide watch. Kelly got out of her chair and spoke discreetly to doctor Halsey.

"He won't talk to me" she reported.

Halsey sighed, "Kelly, I know is a long shot, but maybe you should tell him how you feel."

"I can't, doctor, I tried. But I just couldn't say it" Kelly replied, she turned back to look at Kyle. "There has to be some way to reverse this."

"Reverse?" Halsey muttered.

"Doctor, maybe we should revive the Chief from cryo to talk to Kyle. Or maybe gray team, I know Kyle was close to them" Kelly suggested.

"I'm not sure what help they would be" said Halsey. "Go, get some rest, you can relieve me in six hours."

"Yes, doctor" Kelly said as she left. Halsey stood there pondering, then an idea formed in her head. She moved over to the terminal and after making sure Kyle was out of earshot, she activated the COM.

"Patch me through to the intensive care ward"

--

an hour later, Halsey supervised Cassandra's arrival in Kyle's room, it was a damn good thing they made the neutral buoyancy tanks portable.

"Doctor, are you sure this is a good idea?" Cassandra asked through the microphone in her mask, her voice was still weak. "What if this just makes him feel worse?"

"His guilt is what's making him feel bad" said Halsey. "This may be the only way to help him."

"But its not true, I know it isn't."

"You want to help Kyle, right?" Then I'm afraid reverse psychology may be the only way said Halsey.

"I'll do it if this can help him" said Cassandra. "I didn't warn everyone in time he took a surgical scalpel."

The med techs moved her over to the side of Kyle's bed, who was asleep and hadn't woken up with all the noise going on. Once Cassandra was in place, the techs and Halsey vacated the room. Kyle stired after five minutes and noticed Cassandra in the room.

"I herd what you did" said Cassandra. Halsey says you're not suicidal, otherwise you would have done it in your room instead of the gym where you knew were surveillance cameras. You wanted us to find you."

Kyle didn't respond, but looked away.

"I forgive you, Kyle" Cassandra said.

His head snapped up in her direction, he blinked twice in rapid succession and shook his head clear, as if he had just woken up. Kyle suddenly realized everything he'd done over the past day, treating everyone badly, the suicide attempt.

"Cassie, what have I done?" Kyle said. "I did this to you."

"I know" Cassandra replied, following Halsey's instructions to play along with Kyle. "I forgive you for everything, but you have to do something for me."

"Anything"

"promise me you won't beat yourself up over this, that you'll keep fighting and keep leading... for me."

Cassandra reached out with her good hand and touched the glass of her tank. Kyle in turn reached out with his left hand and touched the same spot on the tank. Neither of them had noticed Kelly was watching them from the doorway. She had given it some thought and decided to tell Kyle the truth about how she felt, thinking it really could help him. Only when she arrived, she caught Kyle and Cassandra talking, and arrived in time to hear Cassandra make Kyle promise to get better for her. Then it dawned on her _"no wonder he tried to kill himself, he likes Cassandra". _This would mean that Kyle couldn't love Kelly back, that her feelings for him meant nothing. But Kelly didn't stop loving him, because she still held onto the hope that one day.... Kyle would love her back.


	15. Chapter 15: dance the night away

**Message from the general: **my readers, I'm a bit disappointed here, with the lack of reviews for the last two chapters. All I simply ask in return for me posting this is that you please leave a review, nothing to hard. All I want is an opinion or some feedback.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 15: dance the night away**

December 24, 2549

location: UNSC cruiser _Potemkin_- in slipspace

Kyle stood in one of the cargo bays of the cruiser which had been converted into a dance floor for the ship's annual Christmas party. It seemed strange to celebrate a holiday after the cruiser was retreating from a failed mission to retake New Constantinople. But the Captain said it was designed to boost morale and he had graciously extended an invitation to Kyle and the only other Spartan aboard, Linda. The two of them had been paired for this sortie and Kyle wished it had been Kelly instead. Without his armor, Kyle's pale skin made him easily show out among the crowd, so he mingled toward the back of the room. He raised his glass of punch to his lips, but before he could take a sip, Linda grabbed his arm.

"Come and dance with me" Linda said as she dragged Kyle to the center of the room where several other people were gathered.

"Linda, I don't dance" Kyle protested, but it was too late, she already had him out on the dance floor and an arm around his waist.

"Come on, live it up a little" Linda said as they began moving across the dance floor. Kyle knew there was no point in fighting it so he put both his arms over Linda's shoulders and moved to the beat of the song. When the music changed, Kyle let out a small smile at what the song was, _dance the night away. _Something came over Kyle so he reached one arm around her waist and took her hand in his. This whole situation reminded him of the time Catlin danced with him at the sophomore prom. Kyle had only gone to the prom to mingle around, Catlin spotted him and made him dance with her, they were almost voted prom king and queen.

As they danced, they were watched from across the room by some of the ODSTs assigned to the cruiser. The Captain had deliberately sent the Spartans into a hot zone that the ODSTs could have easily handled. The Captain had said the ODSTs "didn't have the strength to complete the mission". Their Commander, Major Kerry told the rest of his people to drop the matter. One of his company commanders, Lieutenant Dan Simpson stood with a few of the men in his company, Sergeant Peters, Sergeant Mathias, Corporal Hadrian and Gunnery Sergeant Hall.

"Look at them, how cute" Peters said in a nasty tone. "Why'd the skipper even invite them?"

"Because the skipper is a suck up" said Hadrian.

"Watch your mouth!" Dan snapped. "Those two out there are just like you and me."

"Wow, el-tee, you must really like the freaks, or is it the girl you're more interested in?" Peters asked.

"Watch it, Sergeant!" said Dan. "Give those heroes the god damed respect they deserve". He marched off for the concession table and the small group of helljumpers began to disperse, except for Peters and Hadrian.

"You want to have a little fun with the freaks?" Hadrian asked after she noticed something hanging from the ceiling. When Peters noticed it too he said: "you're on". The two of them took to the dance floor, dancing in the direction of Kyle and Kelly. The two of them were still dancing, much to the enjoyment of Linda.

"Liar" she whispered in his ear.

"What?"

"You said you couldn't dance" said Linda. "Well what do you call this?"

"Its not something I like talking about" said Kyle.

"Your life from before you became a Spartan, right?" Linda asked. "You never talk about it, you've never showed anyone what's in that bag. Don't you think its time to stop hiding this."

"Why are you bringing this up?" Kyle asked.

"Because I'm trying to ask if you'll at least open up to me. We've known each other for over 20 years, not once have you talked about your life". Her face inched closer to his and she whispered. "Maybe it's time."

Suddenly, the two helljumpers bumped into them while dancing, and Kyle and Linda staggered a few feet to the left.

"You ok?" Kyle asked as he helped Linda regain her footing.

"Fine" she replied.

They both started hearing "oohs" from the rest of the party goers, all their eyes were transfixed on the two Spartans. Kyle didn't know what happened until he finally looked up and saw a plant suspended above them, mistletoe.

"I don't get it" said Linda as she noticed the mistletoe. "What's so special about a plant?"

Kyle lowered his voice to a whisper and moved his face closer to her ear, "when two people stand under the mistletoe... they..."

"well, let's have it."

"They're supposed to kiss" Kyle finally said. He was also feeling a bit embarrassed, everyone was glaring at him, so he decided to take action. "Trust me on this" Kyle said as he leaned in and kissed her, full on the lips. Linda relaxed into the kiss when she realized Kyle was putting it on for show. When they were finished, she turned to the crowd and said, "what, you've never seen two Spartans kiss?"

The crowd dispersed and Kyle and Linda broke out in a quiet laughter.

"Nice save" Linda said.

"Thanks" Kyle replied.

Linda moved off and over to the concession table to get some more of that punch that everyone loved. Three people came over, the two she recognized from the dance floor, the ones that bumped into her and Kyle.

"Ma'am" said one of them. "We'd like to apologize for what happened earlier."

"I don't understand?" said Linda.

"What the Sergeant is trying to tell you is that he and Corporal Hadrian purposely pushed you and that other Spartan into the mistletoe" said Dan. "I saw them do it"

"It was a stupid prank, ma'am" said Hadrian.

"You two are dismissed" said Dan.

The disgruntled helljumpers walked away but still hung around the food table, and Dan turned back to face Linda, "I'd like to apologize myself for their behavior".

"Sir, it isn't a problem" said Linda. "Spartans are used to being outcasts."

"Here", said Dan as he handed Linda a glass of punch he found on the table next to the rest of them. "Look, I know this might sound a little weird coming from an ODST, but do you want to dance?"

Linda finished taking a sip from her punch and set it back down at the table, "I'd be glad to" she said.

--

Kyle had returned to his mingling ways for the last twenty minutes when he herd a bit of commotion from the dance floor. Making his way to the front, he saw an ODST Lieutenant holding a semiconscious Linda. Kyle rushed over to their side and helped support Linda.

"Heeey, Kyle" Linda said. Kyle had seen this kind of behavior before, though not in a long time.

"Is she drunk!?" Kyle yelled at the helljumper, not even caring he was his superior officer.

"I don't know, there isn't even any liquor on the table, I don't see how" said Dan. "She was dancing with me fine just a minute ago, then she said her vision was getting blurry, and she started acting funny."

"Are you sure she didn't have anything?" Kyle asked as he put one of Linda's arms around his shoulder and got her upright.

"Only some..." Dan's voice dropped away as he rushed back to the food table and found Linda's bowl of punch. His picked it up and sniffed it, wincing at the smell of its contents. Kyle came over, still carrying Linda.

"Her drink has been spiked" said Dan. "Probably from someone's flask, considering liquor isn't allowed to junior officers, or NCOs for that matter."

"Come on, Kyle, lets go back and dance" Linda said before starting to laugh.

"How much did she have?" Kyle asked.

"Just a little" said Dan. "She'd have to have several cups of the stuff to get her wasted like that."

"Don't talk about me as if I wasn't here" Linda said lazily.

"Not now!" Kyle hissed. "Sir, you mind giving me hand hand?"

"Not at all" said Dan as he took Linda's other arm and helped Kyle take her out of the cargo bay and to the lift. Kyle punched in deck seventeen, junior officer's quarters where he and Linda had been assigned rooms. In the elevator, Kyle set Linda down against the side of the car and tried to get a coherent response from her.

"Linda, did you see anyone put anything in your drink?" Kyle asked.

"Why, did they put something in yours?" She gave Kyle a playful punch in his shoulder and started laughing again.

"I'm guessing Spartans can't metabolize alcohol as well" said Dan.

"Doesn't look like it" said Kyle. "Spartans aren't allowed to drink on or off duty, its starting to make sense why. Sir, can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"You're not like most ODSTs, Lieutenant. You're going out of your way to help a Spartan, why?"

"Because you're not freaks that some of the brass make you out to be, and most helljumpers just think you're glory hogs, I don't. I think you guys are our best weapon against these Covenant uglies" said Dan. "But some of us, especially Peters and Hadria.... they did it!"

"I'm sorry?" Kyle asked.

"Two of the Marines in my company, they were the ones who bumped into the two of you while you were dancing" said Dan. "I've reprimanded them for their behavior, but it doesn't look like they got the message."

"Hey, I remember that" said Linda. "You're a good kisser, Kyle."

The lift finally reached deck seventeen and Dan and Kyle helped Linda up, then brought her down the hall. Kyle pointed out her room and he supported Linda while Dan opened the door.

"You get her inside and get her some bed rest" said Dan. He gave Kyle a reassuring slap on his arm, "don't worry, I'll get those two who did this to your friend."

"Thank you, sir" said Kyle as he entered Linda's room, still carrying her.

"I like that guy, you know" Linda said, her speech was becoming less slurred. Though she was still considerably drunk. "What are you doing?"

"You need to sleep" Kyle said as he set her down on the bed.

"Come on" Linda moaned. "We should be having fun, not sleeping... its Christmas."

"Linda, go to bed" Kyle said as he stood up, then was overcome with dizziness, but quickly regained his posture. He tried to walk, but stumbled and fell, and that's when he realized that Linda's drink hadn't been the only one spiked. Those ODSTs had tampered with his own! Kyle tried to get up on all fours and at least try and crawl to the door where he could signal medics using the COM pad in the hall. When he lifted his head up, Linda was at his side.

"Let me help you" she said as she helped Kyle regain his footing, while being barely able to maintain her own. Kyle stumbled over to the door and hit the control pad to open it, he was rewarded by a red LED indicating the door was locked.

"I scrambled the locking mechanism" Linda said as she came up behind Kyle, who spun around to face her. She let out a small giggle as she moved forward, pressed her body against his and kissed him.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Kyle said.

"I liked it when you kissed me" she said as she poked a finger in his chest. "I think you know what happens next". She backed up a bit and zipped down her fatigues, revealing the black tank top she had on underneath. She grabbed Kyle's hand and took him towards the bed, then threw him down on it. Kyle tried to regain his senses, but was too badly intoxicated to even understand what was happening. Linda had removed her jacket and was taking hold of the hem of her shirt. Kyle averted his gaze as Linda lifted it up and over her head, revealing her pale body.

"Come on, big boy, we're going to have fun" Linda said as she began removing her pants.

"No, stop" Kyle said as he tried to worm his way away, but was to dizzy to stand. He could feel his belt being slid away and the zipper of his pants coming down. "No... can't" Kyle said as he flipped over and wormed his way to the other end of the bed. Linda got down on the bed, wearing nothing but her underwear. Kyle felt too week to move as he lay at the foot of the bed, Linda flipped him over and began kissing him again.

"Stop" Kyle said. "We can't do this."

"You know you want to" Linda said as she tore Kyle's black t shirt halfway, then stopped when Kyle had a slip of the tongue and muttered "Kelly."

"what did you say?" Linda asked as she backed away from him.

"I said something?" Kyle groggily asked.

"Yeah, you said Kelly!" Linda barked angrily. "You could have had the decency to tell me!"

"Tell you what, that I love her?" Kyle let slip, unable to control his mouth.

"Oh, so that's it, isn't it!" Linda yelled.

Kyle thought all this yelling would draw attention, but neglected to remember clearly that all the rooms were practically soundproofed. "You want someone to come in here and catch us like this?" Kyle barked. He was slowly getting angry at Linda for the stunt she was pulling.

"It'd be better then spending time with someone who clearly doesn't know the first thing about women" Linda shot back. "What makes you think you can even get anywhere with Kelly?"

"Shut up!" Kyle barked at her.

"I can't believe you" Linda said. "Kelly would never love you back, you're arrogant, pig headed, won't have fun with anyone!"

"Be qu..." Kyle didn't get any farther because Linda returned to her little game by lunging at Kyle, taking advantage of his intoxicated state and subsequent slurred reflexes. She wrapped her legs around Kyle's torso, gripped his shoulders and kissed him fiercely.

"I want you, Kyle" she said angrily.

She pulled him backward so he landed on top of her when she fell back against the bed. Her head landed in the pillows, still kissing Kyle. He managed to break free, enraged at Linda. "Cut this out" he muttered in a threating voice.

"Make me" Linda hissed.

Kyle's rage suddenly became filled with something else, a primal passion that compelled him to kiss her as fiercely as she did him. Linda ripped Kyle's shirt the rest of the way so it hung loosely to him, she then tore the sleeves and tossed the torn cloth away. Before they both finaly passed out, they'd gone too far.

* * *

December 25, 2549

location: UNSC cruiser _Potemkin_- in slipspace

Pain, that was the first thing that registered in Kyle's head as he regained consciousness and returned to reality. He couldn't remember how he got here, or where 'here' was. There was a throbbing in his head that felt like his skull had been split open. Kyle surmised that he was in bed, and judging from the ceiling, he was most likely in his quarters, but why was it so drafty? Kyle soon realized this wasn't his room, and the only thing he was wearing was a tangled sheet that only covered his waist, barely. His legs and torso were exposed. Kyle sat up, his headache getting worse

"Ugh, what happened?" Linda moaned as she sat up next to Kyle. One hand was rubbing her head while her other one held the rest of the sheet to her body. When she noticed Kyle next to her, she pulled the sheet up more and held it with both hands. Kyle looked her over and factored in the fact both of them were naked, and in bed together. He was able to pierce together what probably happened last night.

"oh no, did... did we...?" Linda stammered.

"Have sex?" Kyle finished for her. "I think we did."

Linda buried her face into her hands, in total embarrassment. Kyle was also equally embarrassed, and also wondering what what would compel him to sleep with Linda, someone Kyle just considered as best friend.

"I can't remember what happened last night" said Linda. "Its all like a blur."

"I think you were drunk" said Kyle as a flash of memory leading up to the elevator ride played though his mind. "Yeah, your drink was spiked by some ODSTs, mine too apparently."

"You brought me in here" Linda continued as she started to remember. Then I...

"You don't have to go any further" Kyle said as the memory came back to him, their wild sexual encounter, which had violated half a dozen regulations.

"My head is killing me" Linda groaned.

"You're having what's called a hangover" Kyle explained. Let me help you.

Linda nodded, then quickly turned away as Kyle put on his underwear. Kyle found what was left of his shirt, but couldn't find his pants. "You can look" Kyle said. "Come with me."

Linda attempted to get out of bed, but stumbled and fell, Kyle catching her and pulling the sheet she was using to cover herself, taught. Kyle placed an arm around Linda and led her to the adjoining bathroom. He turned on the shower and set it to cold.

Its not going to feel pleasant Kyle told Linda, but it should help with the grogginess.

It was Kyle's turn to look the other way as Linda removed the sheet, let it fall to the floor and stepped inside the shower. Kyle succumbed to his own hangover and slumped against the glass partition of the shower. His memory of the previous night had almost fully returned, the things the two of them had did.

"Hey" Linda said.

Kyle looked up to see Linda's head sticking around the other side of the partition, her hair and face, soaking wet. "You had better take a turn, you look like you could use it."

"I don't think its appropriate" Kyle muttered.

"Kyle, its the least I can do" Linda said.

Kyle reluctantly agreed so he stood up, removed his underwear, not wanting to ruin the last piece of clothing he had track of, and stepped inside. He immediately stuck his head underneath the stream of cold water, which sent jolts of alertness through his body, he was feeling better except for the headache.

"You were right, it does help" Linda said from behind him, she was leaning against the glass partition with a towel wrapped around her body. Kyle had been in co-ed showers before so he tried to see this as such, but the memory of what they did still played through his mind. Kyle's mind seemed on auto pilot as he reached for the soap and began cleaning himself. He rinsed his body and set the soap back down, Linda didn't even look up once.

"Linda, if you're thinking this is your fault, its not" Kyle said to her. "I took advantage of you."

"After I forced you to" Linda retorted. "I was foolish, looking for a good time. I should have exercised more self control."

"Alcohol can make you do weird things" Kyle said to her. "Its nothing to be ashamed of". Kyle had never seen Linda this spooked before. She finally looked in his direction, but kept her gaze transfixed on Kyle's face.

"I want to say sorry" she said.

"Its fine" Kyle replied. "If anything, its both our faults."

Neither of them noticed Kyle was slowly inching toward Linda, and she was inching away, until she hit the glass partition and had nowhere left to go. Kyle leaned forward just as Linda did, and their lips brushed in a lite, gentle, passionate kiss. He reached out with his hand and gently brushed her arm as did she, but broke away as she felt something smooth on his arm.

"Kyle, what's this?" She said as she peeled off a clear, plastic film circle from Kyle's arm. Kyle took it from her fingers and looked it over. But didn't say anything as the door chime sounded, and they both realized the awkward situation.

"Stay here" Kyle said as he got out of the shower, toweled off quickly and pulled his underwear back on. He threw the towel over his shoulder and messed up his hair a bit, hopefully he could fool whoever was at the door. Kyle crossed the room and stood in front of the door, then activated the COM.

"Spartan, you in there? Its Lieutenant Simpson."

Kyle managed to unscramble the door lock and the door slid open. The Lieutenant stood there with a puzzled look on his face.

"I stayed with her through the night" Kyle said to him. "I needed a shower."

"And she let you use hers?" Dan inquired.

"Yeah" Kyle replied.

"Then where is she?"

"She's using it now" Kyle told him.

The Lieutenant could see that Kyle was trying to obstruct his view of the room interior. Dan pushed past him and took the situation in at a glance, he walked over and picked up Kyle's torn shirt, combined with the messy bed and the rest of their scattered clothes, he had all the proof that something happened.

"Spartan, did you take advantage of her? He asked in a serious tone.

"Sir, I was intoxicated as well" Kyle said. "Whoever spiked her drink obviously did the same to..."

"that wasn't my question, Spartan" he said again. "Did the two of you..."

"sir, neither of us had proper self control" Kyle retorted.

"That's not going to matter, I have to inform the Captain" said Dan. "I'll also have to track down Peters and Hadrian, get them to confess to spiking your drinks."

Kyle suddenly got a thought, Linda had her drink twenty minutes before the alcohol made her drunk. Kyle had his a full hour before, his drink couldn't have been spiked, but then how did he get drunk? Kyle realized the only way the alcohol could have gotten into his system was the small plastic film in his fingers. It was a bio skin patch, designed to release medicine through the skin, someone had adapted it to release alcohol into Kyle's system. And the only other person who could have gotten close enough to plant it, was right in front of him.

"You!" Kyle barked. "You spiked Linda's drink, not those other two."

"Excuse me, Spartan?" Dan said.

Kyle held up the bio skin patch and Dan's face turned cold. "It was supposed to have dissolved by now" he muttered.

"So it was you!"

"Yes" Dan replied as he removed a syringe from his pocket. "I squirted it in her drink when she wasn't looking, hard liquor, even a small amount could intoxicate a Spartan. Didn't it strike you as odd that a couple of non commissioned Marines knew classified medical information about you Spartans?"

"Why?" Kyle asked.

Dan smirked and drew his sidearm, pointing it at Kyle.

"Ackerson" he sneered. "He has quite the interest in you, so he arranged for you and your lady friend to get wasted one night, then you would hopefully do something foolish, something that would jeopardize your career in the Navy. Once detained, Ackerson could simply extract you with his usual methods. Then he would have you for whatever reason, and the UNSC wouldn't lift a finger to save you."

"Why tell me this all then?" Kyle asked.

"You are going to be the unfortunate killer of your Spartan friend, after you attempted to coerce her into sleeping with you."

"Fat chance" Kyle spat back.

Dan reached into his pocket and removed two packages, bio skin patches. "After I apply these again, your blood alcohol levels will back up the evidence of you holding the gun that killed her". He motioned to the bathroom, "call her out."

"No need" Kyle said as he motioned to the door. Dan looked and saw no one, but this split second distraction gave Kyle all the time he needed to tackle Dan. But he brought the gun down on the back of Kyle's head, making his already bad headache, worse. Kyle ignored the pain and focused on getting the gun from Dan's grasp. Suddenly, Dan was tackled from the side by Linda who did a quick uppercut to the side of his head, knocking the Lieutenant out cold. Linda stood up, her body wrapped in a towel and kicked him in the side.

"That was for spiking my drink!" she yelled.

"Good timing" Kyle said.

--

After getting fully clothed, Kyle and Linda turned in Lieutenant Simpson to the Captain and explained what he did, they also had to tell the Captain what the two of them did together while intoxicated. The Captain said no charges would be filed against either Spartan, but they had to report to the infirmary for tests to see if there had been any kind of damage caused by their intoxication. The Captain said Linda also had to submit to a pregnancy test, since Kyle wasn't using protection there was a chance that he impregnated her. The Captain said this whole incident would have to remain confidential and therefore Simpson would simply have to cool his heals in the brig until they arrived at Tau Ceti. Kyle sat on one of the beds in the infirmary, Linda on the one opposite his with her arms crossed.

"Kyle, I want to say sorry again" she said to him. "For everything I caused."

"This wasn't your fault" Kyle said. "Linda, if you don't mind me asking, how did you even know about sexual intercourse? Deja said they never taught it to you."

"I was one of those curious kids who noticed the differences between boys and girls" Linda said. "One day, before the augmentations, I hacked into the medical database and looked it up. I almost coerced John into doing it with me when we were fourteen."

"John?" Kyle laughed. Linda laughed a little to.

"Yeah, but I got cold feet" Linda said. "You know, Kyle, you were pretty good."

"I was?"

"Well from my point anyway, but you were my first, and my best."

"Uh, Linda" Kyle coughed.

"What, its nothing to be ashamed of" Linda said. "Look, Kyle, I hope we're still friends". She extended her pale hand and Kyle took it.

"Sure we are" Kyle said. "Friends do crazy stuff all the time they regret, but they try and put it behind them and move on."

"Who knows, we could be joking about this a month from now" Linda said.

Kyle smiled a bit, but he and Linda snapped to attention when the ship's doctor arrived with a clipboard.

"We got your test results in, it looks like you Spartans lack a certain sequence in the enzyme that breaks down alcohol the doctor said. In your case its been weakened to the point that even a small amount can cause intoxication, and you can't break it down fast enough."

"How did I get drunk so fast though?" Kyle asked.

"The bio patch that you gave me indicated signs of a chemical accelerate mixed in with the alcohol" said the doctor.

"No wonder you were out of it in five minutes" Linda said.

"The pregnancy test was negative" said the doctor, "but if you two decide for something more consensual next time, use protection to be on the safe side."

"Thanks, doctor, but I don't think we'll be needing it" Kyle said as he and Linda left the room. He and Linda parted ways in the hall, Kyle saying he was going to the mess hall for a decent meal, but changed his mind and decided on some actual sleep in his room. Kyle got in the lift and hit the button for deck seventeen, but just as the door was closing, Linda's hand pushed it back open and she joined him in the lift.

"Heading back?" She asked.

"Figured I could use some uninterrupted sleep" Kyle said as the lift car began to ascend. "Linda, why did you want to sleep with me, there must have been a reason?"

"I guess I just wanted to know what it was like" Linda said. "Maybe I did sort of take advantage of you. Why'd you want to have sex?"

"I don't know" Kyle said as he leaned his head back against the side of the lift. "Maybe I was just looking for a good time too."

"What about that kiss in the shower?"

Kyle looked over at her and was about to say something when the lift came to a stop on deck seventeen. Kyle and Linda exited and went down the hall to their rooms, stopping at hers.

"Later" she muttered as she entered and the door shut. Kyle ran a hand through his blond hair, and that's when he noticed the green LED on Linda's door indicating it was unlocked, an invitation? What was he thinking, what about his feelings for Kelly? Kyle always knew that there might be a chance that Kelly wouldn't reciprocate his feelings. His mind wandered back to ten years ago on Mamore, where Alison Todd had kissed him. He had the chance to reciprocate then, but didn't take it, though it was probably a ploy anyway, it still got him thinking. Should he chance a relationship with Linda, or pine away for Kelly? Kyle decided on a course of action. He took a deep breath, exhaled... and walked down the hall to his room.


	16. Chapter 16: tears of a spartan

**Message from the general:** Sorry it took so long, had some computer trouble

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 16: tears of a Spartan**

May 17, 2550

location: Draco system, Draco III- UNSC MASH

"corpsman, how's he doing?" Kelly asked.

"The virus is progressing rapidly, his liver and kidneys are starting to fail said the medic. He's probably got a few hours, he'll be conscious for about half of that. If you're going to say something to him, now is probably the time."

Kelly glanced through the doorway to the small debris strewn room where another Spartan lay. Hooked up to IVs, was Kyle.

* * *

May 16, 2550

location: Draco system, Draco III- pelican dropship

"Chief, they're bringing in jackals" Fred said as he monitored a satellite feed on his HUD, "grunts too."

"We need to go faster" Kyle said to him.

The Chief nodded and stood up, heading for the cockpit. Blue team was on Draco as part of the UNSC's new strategy of a 'brute force' assault. The UNSC fleet in orbit had managed to defeat a smaller, but superior Covenant force using a lure near the planet's moon, the Covenant were devastated by 20 nuclear mines, followed by Shivas and MAC slugs. This had destroyed a good chunk of the moon, and the UNSC projected the large debris would impact the planet within two weeks. FLEETCOM knew the Covenant would be back for the troops that were on the surface, so they ordered an evacuation. Blue team was sent in after the Covenant took out one of the orbital tethers. Green team had been assigned to protect the major tether in the southern hemisphere while blue kept the Covenant in the northern hemisphere busy. They had been called to this region when the Marines were forced to retreat and leave a substantial number of civilians behind. A satellite in orbit had spotted them being rounded up by the Covenant and gathered in a courtyard. The Chief returned from the cockpit with a shrug of the shoulders.

"The pilot's pushing the engines past one hundred-ten percent" he said to them, "so don't be surprised if the engines blow up."

The small bit of humor improved the feeling of helplessness among the Spartans, but it didn't last long.

"Chief..." Fred muttered.

"What is it?" He asked.

"See for yourself" Fred said as he uploaded the feed to the Chief's HUD.

"Pilot, punch it to one hundred-twenty!" the Chief barked.

"Sir, what's going on?" Kelly asked.

John remained silent, something told Kyle this wasn't good whatever he saw.

"Chief?" Kyle asked. "Is everything OK?"

"...get ready for a combat drop" the Chief muttered.

Kyle sprang into action, stood up and started removing equipment from the upper racks. He passed out ammo boxes to Kelly who then began distributing the magazines. Kyle reached his hand out to grab a SRS99C S2, realizing too late it was Linda's and she grabbed it at the same time. Kyle glanced over at her before letting go of the rifle and grabbing the MA5B next to it. Linda grabbed her servicing kit and loaded it up with all her other equipment. Kyle grabbed his M7, slapped a clip into his assault rifle, and waited. Ten minutes later the pelican touched down and the Chief was the first off the dropship, followed closely by Fred. Kyle, Kelly and Linda brought up the rear. There wasn't an acknowledgment light from the Chief or Fred, so what were they doing besides checking to see if the way was clear.

"We're too late" was the only word they got from John, and the only warning for what was around the corner. As they rounded it, they caught sight of the Chief and Fred, standing before a sea of immeasurable carnage. In front of them lay bodies, human bodies, each more ravaged than the next.

"There must be hundreds" Kelly muttered.

"A thousand, at least" Fred corrected.

Kyle didn't hear any other comments, it was like a white noise had blanketed his COM. He could only hear the sound of his breathing.

"We should have gotten here sooner" Fred muttered.

Kyle finally turned away and tried to control his breathing which was becoming more and more rapid. He had seen civilians that had been slaughtered by the Covenant, but nothing like this. This was a bloodbath. The Chief ordered them to fan out among the bodies and look for survivors, something all of them knew was impossible. Linda had posted in a bombed out building and was able to confirm that bodies were scattered in side streets, abandoned shades were also at the ends of the streets. The Covenant had made the civilians try and run only to be cut down. A cursory search revealed no survivors, the Covenant were always thorough and they knew no one could have survived.

"Chief... what do we do with the bodies?" Kelly asked.

"Command is sending in bombers to firebomb the area" The Chief replied. "Cremate the remains."

"What are your orders then?" Kyle asked.

"We're going to make them pay" the Chief muttered.

--

The Spartans were extracted from the site a few minutes before it was firebombed, and the bodies incinerated. The pelican took them to one of the other cities where the Covenant force responsible for the atrocity had fled to. Marine forces were already engaging them along the outskirts of the city. The Spartans were assigned to protect a courtyard where the Chief had said ONI would be sending reinforcements. Kyle ascended the last stair and up to the floor of the partially constructed building where Linda had posted. The construction workers had left in a hurry and most of the floors had only light plastasteel floors, unable to support MJOLNIR armor. Linda had managed to find a floor made of concrete, though it was closer to the ground then she preferred. Kyle walked over to her as she serviced her rifle and set the small case down next to her.

"Sabot rounds" Kyle said. "Recon says there are elites. You'll need the extra penetration if you're going to get through their shields."

"Thanks" Linda said as she began loading the rounds into her magazines. Kyle was turning to leave when Linda called his name.

"What is it?" Kyle asked.

"Come on, you've been avoiding me" Linda said. "Its been six months already."

"Its not exactly an easy thing to get over" Kyle replied.

"Kyle, its just sex" Linda replied. "I thought we agreed that we'd just put it behind us."

"Its not something you just get over" Kyle replied as he turned to leave.

Linda was about to say something when the familiar jet wash of a pelican's engines was herd. Kyle herd it to and rejoined Linda as the dropship set down in the courtyard and several helljumpers exited, carrying a collection of four canisters between them. They set them up and connected them with another piece of equipment that was set in between them. Several armored technicians began calibrating the equipment, Kyle could see they hall had ONI insignias on their armor.

"Linda, use your scope, find out what that stuff is" Kyle said.

Linda set the rifle down and sighed through the oracle scope, "neutron and radiologicals are clean" she said. "But there's something cold in there, thermals report sub-zero temp, though its rising."

"Some kind of bomb?" Kyle said.

"You got me" Linda replied.

Kyle was about to get on COM to inform the Master Chief when a pair of banshee fliers took out the pelican as it lifted off. The helljumpers also scrambled for cover as a pair of spirits descended in and sprayed the engineers with plasma fire. Kyle leaped into action as he scooped up his MA5B and jumped from the side of the building, landing in the street. A green acknowledgment light winked on from Linda, indicating she had his back covered with her rifle. Only five helljumpers survived the initial Covenant assault and were taking cover behind a chunk of concrete. The spirits set down and Kyle sprinted forward, grabbed a SPNKr from a fallen helljumper and fired a rocket into the dropship just as one of the hatches opened, obliterating the Covenant troops inside. The other spirit was scared off, however the damaged one was able to unload the troops that had survived in the other spork. The helljumpers chose this opportunity to joint the fight, handling the grunts and jackals, but they didn't notice two blurs exit the dropship under the hail of weapons fire. Kyle watched as blood began to spray seemingly out of nowhere, which later turned out to be a cloaked elite that had slipped off the dropship and was spotted n the thermals by Linda. She had dispatched it and was in the process of locating the other one when it jumped on top of Kyle. Both of them went crashing to the ground, Kyle loosing his MA5B and the elite's cloak failed. The elite primed two plasma grenades and Kyle was able to see their eerily blue glow in time to realize the elite was intent on blowing himself and Kyle straight to hell. Kyle rebounded and knocked both grenades out of the alien's hands, but one landed on one of the helljumpers that were still taking cover from the spirit. The grenade detonated and killed all five ODSTs. Kyle looked to see the other grenade land on the equipment and canisters the ONI personnel had been setting up. Kyle didn't see the detonation because the elite tackled Kyle back down to the ground, grabbed his head and began smashing it into the concrete. Kyle faceplate cracked and shattered, but he hand been able to push off and smash his back into the elite. This time Kyle was on top of the elite and he had his M7 in hand. He pushed the submachine gun in between it's mandibles and pulled the trigger. Kyle suddenly noticed a purple fog had rolled in and when he took a breath, his lungs stung badly. He began coughing and wheezing and his vision was getting blurry, Kyle finally succumbed to the darkness.

--

He awoke after what felt like an eternity to see his helmet had been removed, and he could see an identical one hovering over his face, belonging to Linda. Kyle sat up to see several pelicans in the courtyard, John, Kelly and Fred had also arrived and were going over the wreckage of the canisters. Kelly lifted up a piece of charred metal... with a biohazard symbol painted on the side.

* * *

May 16, 2550

location: Draco system, Draco III- UNSC MASH

After the biohazard containers had been identified, Kyle was flown to the closest MASH unit in the city, which was sadly under equipped. Its staff only consisted of corpsman, no actual trained doctors were present. Kyle was being kept isolated and the Chief was trying to find out exactly what had happened and what was in the canisters, when he did he gathered Blue Team outside Kyle's room and told him what they had learned.

"Its some kind of experimental bio-weapon ONI's been developing to use against the Covenant" he explained. "They don't know what kind of effect it'll have on him."

"There's a cure, right?" Kelly asked.

The Chief looked at her for a full minute before replying bitterly: "...no."

"Shouldn't someone tell him?" Linda asked.

"I'll do it" Kelly replied rather quickly.

John gave her and nod of approval and Kelly entered the room Kyle was in. he was pacing back and forth, without his helmet on. It was sitting on a concrete slab, the faceplate shattered because of that elite.

"Well?" Kyle said rather harshly. "What the hell was that stuff?"

"Maybe you should sit down" Kelly said to him.

"I've been cooped up in this room for over three hours and you..." Kyle stopped short as he began violently coughing. Kelly was at his side in seconds and eased him down to the floor. When his gauntlet came away from his mouth she noticed a small amount of blood on the sides of his mouth, and his gauntlet was covered in it. Fear ripped at her heart as she keyed her COM and signaled the corpsman that something was wrong. She was forced to watch as the medical personnel had Kyle lie down and another one gave him a light sedative and muscle relaxant so he wouldn't cough as violently.

--

An hour later, ONI finally sent more detailed files on the virus, and the corpsman were pouring over it, trying to make sense on if the virus was treatable or not. The head corpsman was forced to inform the Chief that there was no way to treat Kyle because they had no idea what was wrong with him. Kelly stood outside the room Kyle was in as the medic checked him over again, then left the room. Kelly immediately ambushed the corpsman with questions on whether or not Kyle was going to make it.

"The virus is progressing rapidly, his liver and kidneys are starting to fail" said the medic. "He's probably got a few hours, he'll be conscious for about half of that. If you're going to say something to him, now is probably the time."

"Thank you" Kelly politely replied as the corpsman went down the hall.

Kelly stood outside the room for several minutes, thinking about what to say to him. While this was happening, Kyle lay on the ground feeling worse than he ever had before. He was shivering inside his armor due to a high fever, he knew he was going to die. Suddenly, a soft voice whispered: "shh".

Kyle felt a soft hand stroke his forehead so he opened his groggy eyelids and looked up at a sight that he hadn't seen in over 25 years.

"m...mom?"

Kyle thought he was dreaming, his mother, here?

"Shh", she repeated.

"I missed you" Kyle whispered back, "you and dad, and Josh and David."

"I know" she replied softly. "We miss you too, but I understand why you're doing this. You have a destiny."

"No, mom, it was an accident, someone did this to me."

"Did you ever think to consider that you were supposed to be transported here?" She asked. "Kyle, no one person can know what their future holds, you'll do great and special things here. I may miss you, but I know what you're doing is the right thing for us."

"Huh?" Kyle asked groggily, his eyelids slowly becoming more heavier and the room began to spin.

"Shh" his mother repeated as she gingerly kissed his forehead. "Rest now"

With that, Kyle felt himself drift away into unconsciousness. Kelly came in shortly after, having not herd a word of Kyle's talk with the aberration of his mother. She paced the room for a minute before swallowing up her pride and kneeling down next to Kyle.

"Kyle, you've gotta fight this" she said in a defiant tone. _Why does this have to be so difficult?_ She thought. "Look, for the longest time I felt something about you, and I knew I couldn't, so I just took all those feelings and bottled them up inside."

She took off her helmet and her left gauntlet, then set them aside. She slowly cuffed Kyle's face and leaned closer, wearing a serious look.

"Don't die on me" she whispered. "You've faced death dozens of times and made it, you'll make it through this because... I want to tell you this for real someday". She leaned forward and gently kissed his forehead, then got down beside him and lay next to him.

"If you are gonna die, then I won't let you die alone here" she said. Kelly began to notice that she was tearing up, and her composure slowly melted away. "Damn it, Kyle!" She yelled. "Don't die, not now, not here."

She hung her head low and let the tears flow, until a voice finally said: "Kelly?" She knew the voice wasn't Kyle's as it was too deeper than his. She looked up to see the Master Chief standing in the doorway.

"Kelly... we should leave him be" he said.

"No, I'm not going to let him die alone in some dark room in a bombed out building."

The Chief had to physically pick her up on her feet and take her into the hall.

"How long have you felt like this for him?" He asked.

"It doesn't matter" Kelly replied as she sniffled and wiped her eyes.

"Yes it does" the Chief said. "You can't feel this way about anyone, you get too attached then when something like this happens you'll regret it for a long time."

"Don't give me that talk!" Kelly snapped. "I still remember Sam, he was my friend too, you don't think I miss him too!"

Kelly was starting to loose her composure again. The Chief did something rather spontaneous as he took Kelly close and hugged her, it was a rather awkward because of their bulky armor.

"He's dying" Kelly whispered. "He's dying and I can't help him."

Suddenly, someone concealed in the shadows cleared his throat. John and Kelly let go of each other and turned to see this mysterious figure as he stayed in the shadows.

"Oh, no, go back to what you were doing, I almost had my camera out" he said.

"Who are you?" the Chief asked in an annoyed tone.

The man stepped out from the shadows and the two of them noticed he walked with a limp and used a cane. He was middle-aged, had a rough 5 o'clock shadow and dark circles under his eyelids. He wore a leather jacket with a button-up shirt underneath.

"I'm a doctor, and if you want your friend in there to live then you'll listen to me."

"Where did you come from, you don't look military?" Kelly asked.

"The more time we wast deciding if I'm a jarhead, the more time the disease has to run ts course."

"Do you even know what it is?" John asked.

"Your friend is exhibiting some of the classic signs of an auto-immune disease" The Doctor said.

"What's auto-immune?" Kelly asked.

"Essentially his own immune system is attacking his body, he needs immune suppressants, and a new kidney ASAP."

"How can you know all this?" John asked.

The mysterious doctor reached into his coat pocket and removed a datapad. "I stole it from your so called corpsman when they weren't looking". He started fumbling around with the data on the screen. "We need to suppress his immune system and give him a new kidney with the next hour..."

"I get the picture" Kelly said. "John, please let him help."

The Chief looked over at her and slowly nodded.

--

Less than an hour later, Kyle was lying on his now exposed chest, the upper portions of his armor having been removed. He had been confirmed to be in a coma by the mysterious doctor who was now prepping for surgery. He had said first they would give him a new kidney, then suppress his immune system so the new kidney could filter out the disease that was causing his immune system to act this way. His own kidneys were just too damaged to do it themselves. Kelly and John watched from a distance as the corpsman began positioning surgical tools, but one of them just arrived with a grim face.

"I'm sorry, but the flash clone failed to mature" he said. "It'll take another forty-five minutes to grow another."

"We can't wait that long" said The Doctor as he walked back in. "What's his blood type?"

"Huh?" Said the corpsman.

"What, didn't they teach you how to perform a organ transplant before we had flash cloning?" He asked. "We need to find a compatible match from someone here. So what's his blood type?"

"B positive" said the Chief who had called up the blood transfusion chart of the Spartan roster, created so if they needed to do a transfusion out in the field for a wounded Spartan, they could find a compatible match since it wasn't a good idea to use regular human blood. He flipped through the roster and saw that only Jai, Adriana, Will, Issac and Grace had B positive blood, none of them were even on Draco III.

"Chief, take one of mine" Kelly said.

"You're not even B positive" he replied.

"I'm O, that works, right?" Kelly said.

They both looked over at The Doctor who simply said: "get her prepped."

* * *

May 19, 2550

location: Draco system, Draco III- UNSC MASH

Kyle felt like he'd just woken up from a dream that he didn't want to. He noticed he was now wearing a helmet, but his back felt a bit stiff.

"If you're going to move, then you better do it slowly" said a voice from next to him. Kyle looked up and saw Linda sitting next to him, without her helmet on.

"That's mine you're wearing, by the way" she said.

"The helmet?" Kyle asked. "Why?"

"We need to keep you isolated from the outside, until you immune system can adapt."

"Adapt to what?"

"Your new kidney" Linda explained. "The Doctor says it should have filtered out the disease by now."

"What the hell was wrong with the old ones?"

"Whatever you were infected with told your immune system to attack your body" Linda explained. "This doctor gave you something to suppress your immune system and said you needed a kidney to get rid of the stuff, yours were already too badly damaged. You have to stay isolated so you don't get sick."

"Where's everyone else?"

"The Chief was just here a moment ago, I think he's talking with that doctor. Fred's on guard detail and Kelly's still in recovery."

"Recovery for what?"

"That new kidney of yours, it came from Kelly" Linda said.

"What? Why wasn't it just flash cloned?"

"I don't know, there was some kind of problem and they couldn't grow it in time, Kelly gladly volunteered one of hers."

"So is she doing ok, is she alright?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah, you're the one she's more worried about" Linda said. "Do you remember when you said you loved her?"

"Is this conversation going into what we did after I said that?" Kyle asked.

"No" Linda replied. "I think this isn't a one way feeling anymore. I think she likes you."

Kyle let out a small laugh, "I think she just likes me as a friend."

"Oh, really?" Linda said as she raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't be surprised to see the two of you together in a couple of years."

Linda stood up and left the room, joining the Chief in the hall. He was speaking with the mysterious doctor and was out of view from Kyle, though he could hear his voice. Kyle could have sworn he herd that voice from somewhere, but couldn't put his finger on it. He got a startling revelation when the doctor's cane was visible for a moment in the doorway as he waved it around to illustrate a point to the Chief, it had what looked like flame decals on the bottom.


	17. Chapter 17: surface feelings

**Message from the general:** ok you guessed it, the mysterious doctor was none other than our favorite vicodin-addicted doctor from New Jersey. Though that's the last time you'll see him, but not necessarily the last cameo in this fic.

And sorry it took so long to get up, as I'm sure many of you noticed the FF loging was down for a couple days

Ok this chapter is set right after the battle on Sigma Octanus IV

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 17: surface feelings**

July 18, 2552

location: Sigma Octanus system- UNSC _Leviathan _

Mandatory decontamination and screening, Kyle often dreaded those words, but had only been through two actual. The discomfort came from the practices towards the ends of training, simulated nuclear strikes that would require the Spartans to follow the standard hazmat procedures and spend 24 hours locked inside a decontamination chamber until they could be certain they were free of any radiation. Today was no exception. After their little surfing trip, Kyle and Kelly were segregated to the back of the pelican in order to avoid exposing the civilian refugees. Once they arrived on the Leviathan, Kelly and Kyle were the first ones off and were ushered away to the hazmat exit of the hanger bay. Before passing through the specialized airlock, Kyle caught sight of James being taken off the pelican, unconscious and still missing the lower half of his arm. Kyle and Kelly passed through into the chemical showers where clothing would normally be scrubbed down to remove any radioactivity, in this case it was their armor that was covered in foam and riced off with chemicals, some of the crap that had accumulated during their trip through the sewers washed off, but a good deal of it was still on. Eventually both Spartans had to shed their armor and undersuits, get washed with a different chemical and then were allowed to dress into simple sweats and tanks. After getting dressed, they were placed in the main DECON chamber for the mandatory twenty-four hour quarantine, to see if they'd start manifesting the signs of radiation sickness. The chamber was roughly rectangular, had two bunks, one on opposite sides of the room. There were overhead lockers that contained supplies and finally a pair of datapads for the occupants of the room. Kelly sat down on one of the beds and immediately settled in as if she was going to sleep, but instead sat up and pulled her left leg closer to her body and rolled up the pant leg, her injured ankle was bruised and starting to swell.

"Does it hurt?" Kyle asked.

"Not really" she replied. She started to notice his concerned look, "Its not that bad."

"I'm not so sure" Kyle said as he reached into the overhead compartment and removed the medical kit. Kelly knew she could fight him on this so she let Kyle scan her ankle with a handheld MRI.

"Its fractured alright" he reported, "but it looks like the biofoam helped it from getting worse". Kyle removed the bone-knitting polymer from the kit and took off the cover from the needle. Kyle activated the syringe and the needle began to heat up, the polymer would only stay inside as long as it was injected through a cauterized incision. Inside of a minute her ankle was treated and Kyle gave her a dose of painkillers and another drug to help with the swelling. She could walk normally with the injury but would have to wait a couple of days before she could run.

"You know if this Spartan thing doesn't work out you can have an interesting career as a nurse" Kelly said with a smirk on her face.

"Very funny" Kyle said sarcastically. He returned to his side of the chamber and settled into his bunk while Kelly rolled over and tried to fall asleep. After a few minutes she rolled back over so she was able to see Kyle.

"Are you still up?" She whispered.

"Yeah" Kyle groaned as he rolled over to face her.

"I didn't tell you thanks for helping me out back on the surface."

"You don't need to" Kyle said.

Kelly smiled slightly. "What's wrong, don't want all the hero worship?"

Kyle chuckled, "not really, I'm just content to do my job."

"Kyle, you didn't have to rescue me back there" Kelly said.

"Well you didn't have to help me out of the museum back in Cote d'Azur" Kyle replied. "You could have gotten out before they hit the sewers."

"I'm not going to leave anyone behind, you know that" Kelly said.

"Then there's your answer" Kyle said, "as to why I helped you out back there."

Kelly knew he was hiding something, the way he was talking was blatantly evasive, so she wanted to coax the truth out of him. Standing up, she walked over to Kyle's bunk and sat down on it, he in turn sat up.

"Kyle, you're not telling me the truth" she whispered.

"Does the truth need explaining?" Kyle asked. Neither of them noticed they were slowly inching closer to the other.

"I care about you more than I should" Kyle said to her. "And I can't feel this way. You understand, right?"

"Yeah", Kelly said as she moved away from him. "Yeah... I get you."

"We should probably get some sleep" Kyle said. "Its liable to be the last good shut eye we'll get before we have to go into cryo."

Kelly smiled at the thought of some uninterrupted sleep, returned to her bunk and didn't talk to Kyle for the rest of the night. But as she lay under the covers, she pondered Kyle's words to her. Were they an admission of love? They sure sounded like it, but he also mentioned saying he couldn't feel this way about her. So was it some other feeling, Kelly wasn't sure.


	18. Chapter 18: reunion

**Message from the general: **Sorry if you were upset about the shortness of the last chapter, though I'm not going to stop putting shorter chapters in so you'll just have to deal with it. I'll promise to balance it out with some long ones

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 18: reunion**

August 27, 2008

location: Sol system, Earth- Alexandria, VA

Kelly looked out of the small basement window of Kyle's friend's home, the sky was beginning to turn orange as the sun set behind the trees. She looked back over at Kyle as he sat on the floor with his best friend, Mike, who had sheltered them at his home after being forced to flee from Kyle's house. It was hard to imagine this was where he grew up, 21st century Earth where her entire world was nothing more than a videogame to him. Kyle wasn't wearing his helmet and he was chatting with Mike about old times the two of them had all those years ago, technically hours for Mike. Kelly didn't pay attention as Kyle began to ask Mike about a sensitive subject, something he defiantly didn't want her hearing about.

"How... how's Catlin?" he asked.

Mike's eyes widened when he asked that, at first he was a bit confused by his friend's question, then remembered what he had said earlier about it being nearly thirty years while Mike had just spoke to him only a few hours ago.

"uh... fine, I guess" Mike replied. "So you didn't tell me, how'd you end up inside a videogame anyway?"

"Its technically a parallel universe" Kyle corrected.

"Oh, yeah, like the mirror universe" Mike said a he remembered many episodes of Star Trek that dealt with alternate realities. "So?"

Kyle reached into his belt and produced the Reach crystal. Mikes scrutinized the device for a few moments before a puzzled look played out across his face.

"Dude, I don't get it, you stole the pink panther diamond?"

"No, do you remember that crazy crystal from Reach that Red Team found?" Kyle asked.

Mike's eyes widened when he recognized the implications of the crystal Kyle held.

"Dude, that thing gives off radiation!" Mike stammered as he backed away. "I don't want my sperm to glow in the dark or anything."

"Its fine" Kyle said as he tried to bite back a laugh. "The radiation levels have been constant since I got here."

"You'll forgive me if I just put on my lead cup, Kyle. And you still didn't answer my question, how'd you get to the Halo universe and somehow comeback using the crystal?"

Kyle took a deep breath before continuing. "I did it, I sent myself here."

Mike stayed silent as Kyle explained his theory on how it was all just a giant causality loop that couldn't be broken, Kyle was always destined to go to the Halo universe because he future self was the one that did it.

"Dude, this is some deep shit you're in" Mike said. "So if that's the crystal from under CASTLE base, then you were on Reach when it fell?"

"I was" Kyle grimly replied. Mike found this curious and then remembered that the other Spartans were probably his closest friends since he was trapped in the Halo universe.

"So, did you miss us while you were there, I mean your parents and everyone?" Mike asked.

That was a difficult question for Kyle to answer, the sense of hopelessness that he would never returned plagued and eventually helped get over being home sick, but now? "Sometimes..." Kyle finally replied.

"So then why'd you do it, man?" Mike asked. "You could have not zapped yourself and I might be hanging out with ya right now, well a younger you anyway."

Kyle stood up, Mike following suit and Kyle led him over to the space under the stairs, well out of earshot of Kelly who only gave them a cursory look before returning to scrutinizing old photos of Kyle. After Kyle was sure Kelly wasn't looking he beaconed in her direction to Mike who had an ever increasing grin on his face.

"I knew you had the hots for her!" He almost yelled.

"Keep down!" Kyle hissed as he almost grabbed Mike's mouth with his hand, remembering he was still wearing his gauntlets and would most likely dislocate Mike's jaw if he tried.

"Dude, have you slept with her yet?" Mike asked while still keeping his grin.

"No!" Kyle hissed. "She doesn't even know.

"Ok, ok, calm down" Mike whispered. "And here you were telling me when you and Catlin ended it you'd probably never find another girl."

"We didn't end it" Kyle confessed. "At least not mutually."

Mike's eyes widened at this revelation, he remembered last month when they broke up and both him and Catlin claimed they ended it mutually, though he should have started to suspect when they no longer hung out.

"Dude, how long are you going to be stuck here for anyway?" Mike asked.

"It all depends if my AI can figure out how we can operate the crystal to take us back" Kyle explained, "speaking of which, I better go a check on her."

Kyle hurried off and scooped up his helmet from atop Mike's bed. He donned it a moment later and when his neural lace made contact with the armor's neural port, Kalmiya's icy presence formed in his head as she was able to expand into his brain.

"Finally, do you know what the processing power of your helmet's circuits is?" She said agitatedly.

While Kyle was bust talking to Kalmiya, Kelly was busy scrutinizing some of the objects Mike kept on display in his room. Her eyes settle on one of the posters, there were five people standing on a stage of some kind with a great, bronze statue on display behind them. One of the men was sitting behind an elaborate set of drums, two of the men were standing in front of microphones and each held a different type of guitar. One man stood out from the all the rest as he was hanging onto a rope that dangled from inside a great bing bell that was suspended above the stage, he had long black hair that was tucked under a flat cap. The last man was easily the most oddly dressed as he was wearing a cap, blazer jacket complete with shirt and tie. The weirdest part of his outfit was defiantly his short pants. He like the two men at the microphone carried a guitar, he also bore a strong resemblance to not only the guitarist on the left, but the great statue behind them. Written in a strange font at the bottom of the poster was: _Stiff Upper Lip Tour 2000-2001_.

"They're my favorite band" Mike explained. "Kyle's too."

Kelly's eyes gravitated to some of the photos Mike had displayed on his wall, one in particular caught her eye. It was of a younger Kyle, Mike, and another woman who Kyle had his arm around.

"Who's this?" Kelly asked as she pointed to the photo.

"Uh, her name is Catlin" Mike said.

"Why does Kyle have her arm around her?" Kelly asked.

"Well... she-she was someone special to Kyle" Mike explained.

It took Kelly only a few moments to figure out what this Catlin person was to Kyle, why his arm was around her. She suddenly was filled with jealousy, disappointment and regret. Kyle left her behind and she couldn't be with him.

"Do you know if Kyle wants so see her?" Kelly asked grimly.

"I'm not sure why she would" Mike said, "they ended their relationship a month ago."

"So he wasn't involved with her when he came to my universe?" Kelly asked.

"Yeah" Mike replied as he started to smile. "Are you asking if he's available?"

Kelly didn't reply for a few seconds and Mike's smirk was growing larger when he realized they both like each other.

"Kelly, what's stopping you?" he asked, using her first name and not even caring she was just another storybook character just yesterday. "He likes you, you like him, what's holding you back?"

"Our job" Kelly said. "We're soldiers, we can't be lovers."

"Oh come on" Mike droned. "You both really like each other, just because you're in the military doesn't make it right? I've herd more lame excuses. Just tell him and I'm sure he'll pour his heart out to you". Mike lowered his voice to a bare whisper, "and he's good in bed."

"What is he good at in bed? I don't imagine he'd be doing anything but sleeping" Kelly said innocently, completely unaware of what Mike was implying.

Mike meanwhile couldn't believe her reply and almost burst out laughing, but he restrained himself so Kyle wouldn't come over asking what he were laughing about. "You know what I mean."

"No, I don't" Kelly replied.

Mike almost had to mouth it so he could be absolutely sure Kyle wasn't listening in, he said in a very quiet whisper "sex".

Kelly looked away for a moment before returning her gaze to Mike, she knew what sex was from Linda when they were kids, when she managed to hack into the UNSC medical database during training.

"You're not a virgin, are you?" Mike asked.

Kelly didn't respond immediately and Mike took this as she didn't understand. "Have you done it?" He clarified.

"No" Kelly calmly replied.

Mike didn't know what to tell her next, so he calmly smiled and said "if you do it with Kyle, then you're going to love it."

While Mike was bragging about Kyle's experience, he meanwhile had finished listening to Kalmiya's report and was now scanning Mike's bookshelf, hoping he still kept his copy. That's when he found it situated in between _First Strike_ and _Contact Harvest_ was _Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. _Kyle removed the book and began scanning through the first few chapters on the Spartan III program, looking for that one elusive chapter, then he found it, the one set aboard the _hopeful. _It was hard to believe Kyle had actually experienced part of this chapter, especially for him. He eventually found the specific scene he was looking for and a certain serial number.

"Kalmiya, I need you to save this serial number for later" Kyle said.

"Very well" Kalmiya replied. "What is it?"

"009762-OO" Kyle recited from the page in the book.

"That's a UNSC medical serial number" Kalmiya said. "But it doesn't match anything in my database. What is it?"

"Insurance, against an old friend" Kyle whispered.

--

It was late when they all decided they needed some sleep, Mike was in his bed but found it hard to fall asleep now that his best friends' world had been turned upside down, mainly because part of it was his fault. He had called Kyle only a few hours ago, begging him to come down to Jesse's party, though Kyle didn't know the real reason. The excuse of him trying to impress Catlin's cousin was false, Catlin had approached him at the party to try and get Kyle to come down so she could talk to him, about the real reason he broke up with him. He knew Catlin wanted Kyle to hear it from her and not Mike, and he was weighting telling his best friend, but after finding out that not only he, but Kelly had developed mutual feelings it wasn't right for him to possibly derail any shot he has with Kelly. Mike herd a rustling and saw Kelly sit up from her position on the floor as she tried to get some sleep. She walked over to Kyle who was propped up against the wall and he listened as she confessed her love for him. And moment later she was back on her side of the room and Mike watched as he saw Kyle flex his hand and shift around slightly, a sign that he most defiantly wasn't asleep and probably herd Kelly's confession. Mike smiled to himself a he rolled over and tried to get some shut eye, only to be awoken a few minutes later as Kyle shook him.

"Dude, do you have any idea what time it is?" He groaned.

"Get up" Kyle said. "We need to plan a break-in."

"Oh great, you're back only a few hours and you decided your superman enough to fight the law" Mike said. "Where the hell do you want to break into at this hour?"

"The police station" Kyle said. "I want to see my family before I go back."

It Mike like a ton of bricks, not the fact that Kyle wanted to assault a police station, but that he admitted that he would be leaving, forever. Mike thought back to just yesterday when they hung out over xbox live, how they discussed school which was starting next week. To go from simple teenager to adult Spartan in just a day for him, blew his mind. But no matter it being 24 hours nor 27 years, Mike was determined to help his best friend out of a jam one last time.


	19. Chapter 19: stiff upper lip

Ok, this essentially Kelly and Kyle's first kiss told from Kelly's POV

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 19: stiff upper lip**

September 12, 2552

location: Eridanus system- hybrid ship _Ascendant Justice-Gettysburg_

Kelly exited the infirmary after her brief conversation with Doctor Halsey, she leaned up against one of the bulkheads and sighed. Suddenly, Kalmiya's avatar appeared on her HUD, Kelly had never seen her avatar before today. Her hair was golden, as was the rest of her body. Her hair however was naturally curly and she wore a sleeveless gown.

"He's in the machine shop, deck 15" she said.

Kelly didn't need to figure out who the AI was referring to, and immediately went to the nearest lift and rode it down to deck 15. Kelly just wanted to tell him the truth, she couldn't deny or hide it anymore. She knew he felt the same way not only from what Mike had told her but her own suspicions of his behavior. What she was doing was probably a huge risk but Kelly believed it was the right thing to do. Entering the machine shop she found him already at work on Linda's damaged armor. He swore when he broke a tool while trying to get a replacement component to fit properly. He set the tool down, removed his helmet and wiped the sweat off his forehead, that's when he noticed her standing there.

"I didn't see you there" he said, "how are you feeling?"

Sore all over Kelly replied as he walked over to him.

"Well trust me, you're a lot better off than me" Kyle said as he sat down against the wall of the machine shop. Kelly knelt in front of him and she removed her own helmet, her stomach fluttering as she did. She looked into his blue eyes, eyes she always admired because when she looked into them, it was like glimpsing another person, someone who was peaceful at heart. She looked into them now and saw only sadness, she couldn't blame him, he finally got to see his family after so many years and no matter how brief it was, it made him happier than she'd ever seen. She had a feeling as to why he was so saddened.

"Do you think your parents are ok?"

"I don't know. My father's a resourceful man, but I put them at risk when I came to see them back in Alexandria."

Kelly watched as his eyes started to glass over with tears, she hadn't seen him cry like that in years, which made what she was about to do seem all the more right.

"They're fine" she whispered. "If something happened to them they wouldn't have wanted you not to think about that, they would have wanted you to know that they care about you... and so do people here." She slowly began to mover closer to him, her head approaching his, she didn't have any doubts that he wanted this, until he looked away. Kelly was crushed, he knew what she was trying to do, Kelly had been wrong, Kyle didn't care for her in that way. She stood up, one hand clutching her helmet as she turned around and prepared to leave. Kelly could feel the tears gathering, and just as she was about to don her helmet, Kyle grabbed her arm and pulled her back to him. He was standing up, as he looked straight at her.

"Wait, the other night at Mike's... I wasn't asleep",

Kelly's mouth was slightly agape and her stomach felt increasingly tight, but what happened next made her feel pleasure like never before. Kyle quickly closed the distance with his mouth and their lips met passionately. The kiss was unlike anything Kelly ever felt, mainly because it was her first. Though it was quick, her lips still tingled when Kyle's left. The moment was made even better when Kyle whispered three words they both had been dying to hear.

"I love you."

Neither of them were worried that they would be caught, they were more than content to let the moment run its course. In seconds, Kelly's helmet was on the floor and she was pushed up against the wall by Kyle. He cuffed her cheek with his now unshielded wrist and kissed her again, this time it was more passionate, harder, and intense. Kelly relaxed into his kisses, pushing back with equal enthusiasm. Suddenly, she felt his tongue against her teeth, pushing, trying to get in. Kelly was to caught up in the moment to stop him as her mouth hung open, and instantly she felt her tongue press against his, exploring her mouth. Kelly could feel her heart beating loudly in her chest, she could not only hear her quick breathing but Kyle's. Eventually their kiss came to an end and Kelly smiled, because he was doing it too.


	20. Chapter 20: you shook me all night long

**Caution: there is a sex scene**

**conservative Christians should avert their gaze elsewhere, like crappy religious TV**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 20: you shook me all night long**

November 6, 2552

location: Forerunner shield world

"Kyle, I've never done this before" Kelly had said to him earlier as they began stripping off their armor. Kyle wasn't worried by her words and assured her that they would take things slow. It wasn't long before their armor plates were scattered around the ground. Both Spartans were reduced to their undersuits as Kyle lay Kelly down on the grass, slowly kissing her neck. Kelly's left arm snaked around his back, her right hand going around the back of his head. Kelly closed her eyes as Kyle continued his seductive pattern on her neck, she hadn't been ticklish since she was a kid, but they way he was kissing her made her stomach feel ten times lighter. Kyle continued kissing until he reached the neckline of her undersuit and slowly took hold of the zipper, pulling it down. He unzipped it but she still had it on, however he reached inside and began to caress her body.

"Kyle..." she whispered as he began moving his hands across her abdomen, slowly going up and eventually cuffing her breasts. Kelly let out a small gasp and she instinctively pushed her hips up against his. Kyle moved his hands to her back and gently massaged the muscles there.

"You really know how to make me feel good" she whispered. She wasn't aware of how this was part of sex, but didn't care as she was already feeling pleasure like never before. His massage ended too soon for her liking and his hands withdrew from inside her undersuit. He sat up suddenly, Kelly following suit.

"What's wrong?" she asked, not even caring her undersuit was still open.

"We don't have to do this" Kyle said, still unsure if she had doubts.

"I want to" Kelly said. "I don't care if we're in the middle of some shield world or the Covenant are still out there fighting humanity. All I know is that we deserve to have at least this time together."

She leaned forward and embraced Kyle wrapping her arms around him. Kyle didn't return the gesture but instead pulled the left flap of her undersuit down and began kissing her shoulder. She relaxed her grip on his back and moved her hands to the back of his shoulders. Kyle kept pushing the flap further down until it reached her joint, he reached over and repeated the process with the right side and Kelly slipped her arms out of the sleeves. He unzipped her leggings and removed her undersuit entirely. Kelly was now completely naked and he didn't wast any time, he started feeling her, kissing her, making her feel good. Kelly closed her eyes and leaned her head back as Kyle gave attention to her breasts. Her left hand was around his neck while her right located the zipper for Kyle's undersuit. She pulled it down and together they got it off. Kyle noticed that Kelly's eyes were starting to gravitate down, it didn't take a genius to figure out what she was looking at.

"Wow" she muttered, "that's..."

"are we gonna do this?" Kyle asked.

"So you're gonna put your..."

"yeah" Kyle said. "You're not nervous again?"

"No" Kelly replied quickly, "well maybe I am a little."

Kyle sighed, "I think we should probably stop."

Kelly suddenly kissed him hard on the lips, pressing herself against him. Her hand inadvertently touched one of the many scars on his body, this was the one he received from the elite on Mamore, the one he re opened in his suicide attempt. Ever since the double surgery the skin there had been tender and sensitive. Kyle tensed up and his hand immediately covered the scar.

"I'm sorry" Kelly said.

"Don't" Kyle said as he cuffed her cheek with his free hand. "If you still want to do this..."

Kelly cut him off as she kissed him again, gently she pushed Kyle onto his back. Kelly gently placed her fingers on his scar, making sure not to aggravate the skin.

"I honestly thought I lost you when that elite stabbed you" she whispered. "When you tried to kill yourself, I didn't know what to feel. That's when I realized how much I cared about you."

Kyle reached out and caressed one side of her face. "I realized it that night on Reach, when Maria left. I looked over at you while your face was in the moonlight, you never looked more beautiful."

Kelly smiled and gently kissed his scar, sending a shockwave though his body. They began kissing harder and suddenly, Kyle took hold of Kelly and rolled her beneath him, preparing to take it further.

"It's going to hurt for a few seconds" Kyle said.

Kelly nodded and said, "I've had worse."

The next thing Kelly felt was a sharp lance of pain as he entered in one thrust, her hands grabbed onto his arms, fingers digging into his skin. As quickly as it came the pain was gone, she could feel him inside her as he slowly began to thrust in and out, each time she felt even greater pleasure. He continued at the same slow pace, giving her time to adjust.

"Kyle, its ok, go as fast as you want" she whispered.

Kyle didn't head her advice as he continued at the same steady rhythm, but eventually he found his pace increasing. Kelly wanted him to go faster to discover just how much pleasure she could experience. Kyle began thrusting harder and faster and Kelly wrapped her arms around his back. Kyle snatched her arms away and their hands and fingers in intertwined. Kyle pushed harder until Kelly was hit with a shockwave of pleasure as every muscle tensed and relaxed. She called Kyle's name throughout the whole ordeal. Kyle thrust several more times until Kelly felt him release into her and he began to moan softly. Their hands released and their bodies separated, Kyle still lying on top of her as their breathing began to slow to normal. Their hair and bodies were damp with sweat and each Spartan was more tired out than 24 hours of constant combat operations. Kyle finally mustered the strength to roll off of her and he lay in the grass next to Kelly.

"Well that was... interesting" Kelly said as they looked up at the sky. She wasn't quite sure she could come up with a word to describe her first sexual experience. Only it had been the most fun and the fastest she'd ever been tired out. Kelly felt an arm snake around her and she moved closer to Kyle. She pushed right up against him and he planted a kiss on her sweaty forehead

"glad you liked it" Kyle whispered back.

Kelly playfully hit him in his side, "liked it? I loved it" she said. "What do you normally do after sex?"

"As my English teacher used to say: 'you have a cigarette'. I think we'll just go to sleep" Kyle said.

Kelly couldn't argue with that so she cuddled closer to Kyle who reached over to his nearby pack and removed a thermal blanket, wrapping it around the two of them. Kyle watched as she rested her head on his chest, as it slowly rose and fell to his breathing. Though he didn't show it, Kyle had been nervous about having sex with Kelly, mainly because of the lack of protection. Since his first with Catlin he always made sure to use a condom, barring the one night stand he had with Linda he had always done it. He wasn't too worried as Linda didn't get pregnant, which probably meant the Spartans were sterile. Little did Kyle know how wrong he was.


	21. Chapter 21: values and beliefs

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 21: values and beliefs**

November 7, 2552

location: rogue covenant cruiser _the light of truth_ en route to Sol system

"Is this ok?" Kelly asked.

"Perfect" Kyle whispered as he felt Kelly's hands rub into his skin.

"Lower" he said as he reached behind his back and guided her hand with his. Kyle had pulled a muscle back on Onyx during the fight to protect the portal entrance, and over the past few days the pain had been getting worse. Kelly finally noticed his discomfort a half hour ago and after getting him to admit it, she offered to relax his tensed muscles. They were in their room that Shane had assigned them, Kyle had removed his armor on his torso and Kelly was trying to find his pulled muscle.

"Your muscles are too thick" she said.

"Speak for yourself, miss universe" Kyle replied.

Kelly eventually found his pulled muscle and began to press her thumbs harder into his back.

"That feels better" Kyle said softly.

"Hey, Kyle, can I ask you something?"

"You know you can ask me anything" Kyle said.

"Its kinda personal" Kelly said.

"Well we _were_ kinda personal last night" Kyle whispered with a smirk.

"I wanted to talk about the girl you were with back on your Earth" Kelly said. "Her name is Catlin."

Kelly still had her hands on his back and she was able to feel him tense up when she said Catlin's name. Kyle rotated his body to face her, her hands returned to her sides as she sat cross legged on the bed. Kyle couldn't fathom why Kelly would be asking of all things his ex-girlfriend, let alone how she even knew about her in the first place.

"Why?" Kyle asked.

"I need to know if you still have feelings for her?" Kelly asked.

"That's an awful thing to ask" Kyle said.

"I just need to know if this is actually happening" Kelly stammered. "You were practically my best friend for years, then I fall in love with you and I find out you love be back, it just seems too good to be true. I keep expecting something to come crashing down on us, I don't want find out you still have feelings for someone else, that's what held me back from telling you how I felt years ago."

She knew Kyle was mad, and Kelly feared her one question had caused what she feared might happen. Kyle reached over and gently cuffed her cheek.

"Don't you think I'm having the same reservations about us? On whether this is gonna fail?" He asked. "I can see why you'd want to ask me that, but would I have made love to you if I wasn't sure about how I felt?"

Kyle reached over with his other hand and cuffed her other cheek, then pressed his forehead to hers.

"I did care about her, a long time ago" Kyle said to her. "But I got over her, and met you. No one will ever be more special to me than you, Kelly. Without you I think I'd fall apart, you've been there for me when I needed someone, and I'm always going to be there for you."

--

Kyle awoke the next morning and activated his helmet's HUD. After his talk with Kelly he put his armor back on and both of them decided it was time for some shut eye, considering it was the last they were liable to get due to the Covenant presence on Earth, it was expected to be one hell of a fight. Kyle immediately noticed Kelly was gone and he assumed she had left to meet up with Fred. Kyle got off the bed which was able to successfully support the weight of two Spartans throughout the night. He left their room and began to traverse the halls of the Covenant cruiser, which made him uneasy. The section the Spartans had been assigned was cordoned off by the separatists so the Spartans could be alone, and so the children on the ship couldn't satisfy their curiosity. Kyle went down to the feasting hall that had been included in the restricted section and found it empty except for Tom and Lucy. The benches and tables in the hall had been designed to accommodate all of the Covenant species, and apparently could seat humans. Tom and Lucy both had their helmets off and were poking their utensils though a tray of Covenant food.

"Shane said this was eatable to humans" Tom said to Kyle when he noticed his presence. "I'm not thinking about tempting it."

Kyle wasn't particularly interested in eating any of the Covenant food either, even though Shane had vouched for it. Lucy began to sign something to Kyle who happened to be trained in sign language.

"_We have the same number"_ she signed.

"_I know"_ Kyle signed back

Lucy's eyes widened and she quickly replied, "_you sign?!"_

Kyle nodded, "only a little" he said aloud.

Lucy gave another one of her rare smiles as she brushed one of her bangs away from her forehead.

"I think she has a crush on you" Tom said.

Lucy's face immediately turned red, and then soured as she glared at Tom and nearly pushed him out of his seat.

"Well I'm flattered, and taken" Kyle said to Lucy.

"_I know"_ Lucy replied. "_The lieutenant says you're with -87, she's very nice. You two are nice together."_

"Thank you" Kyle replied.

Suddenly, Dr Halsey poked her head inside the hall and immediately called out to Kyle.

"You might be interested in this" she said.

Kyle, Tom and Lucy felt the hall and followed Halsey to a medium sized, half-sphere shaped room. In the center was a console of Forerunner design, manning it was Shane.

"Though you'd like a history lesson, courtesy of the Forerunner database we have aboard."

Shane activated the console and the room was suddenly filled with stars, each with a miniature solar system revolving around them. Shane zoomed out and they all found themselves standing in a holographic representation of the Milky Way.

"This was basically our galaxy one-hundred-thousand years ago, during the Forerunner-Flood war. Taloar and his people have only been able to decrypt a small portion of their knowledge base, but things went a lot quicker once I arrived."

"Why's that?" Tom asked.

"Humans are descendants of the Forerunners" Kyle said.

"And apparently Spartans are closer to what the Forerunners were, but nowhere near" Shane said. "This ship has been upgraded with Forerunner tech that I've been able to help them activate, like this console."

"So you were talking abut the war?" Kyle said.

"The Flood are some kind of extra-galactic parasite that was found on a planet near the edge of the galaxy. It wasn't long before a war erupted. The Forerunners and a few other space fairing races they encountered fought back for over 300 years. The Flood's only advantage was sheer numbers, they commandeered any type of Forerunner ship from battlecrusiers to shuttles."

The holographic map zoomed in again and focused on a large sphere surrounded by many blue dots. Suddenly, they were surrounded by an even greater number of red dots.

"This was the final battle of the war, the area of space inside the spherical region was where the vast majority of the surviving Forerunners fled to" Shane continued. "That's when they developed the halos, as a last ditch measure to kill the Flood, and their plan might have succeeded if it wasn't for this battle. They attacked too soon and too fast, the Forerunners couldn't evacuate anyone outside their protected space and to the shield worlds they seeded without the Flood detecting them."

Suddenly, a wave of energy washed over all the ships and many of them ceased to function. The battle continued to wage though.

"After the Forerunners died, their military AI assumed control and finished the battle. The remaining Flood parasites died out from starvation."

"They committed mass suicide" Halsey muttered.

"Wait, you said this happened one hundred-thousand years ago, human life would have been extinguished in its infancy then" Tom pointed out.

"We're pretty sure that the Forerunners were able to move a significant portion of the human race to the Ark, along with other species like the Sangheili and the San 'Shyuum."

"The what?" Tom said.

"Sorry, but when you've been here as long as I have you take the time to learn their species' proper names" Shane said.

"Shane, I'm curious as to how your ship was even able to enter the Onyx shield world?" Halsey asked.

Shane activated several more controls and to Halsey's surprise a schematic of a shield world appeared.

"With Forerunner tech built into the slipspace drive of the_ light of truth_ it was only a matter of aligning it to enter the compressed slipspace field. Once we were inside all we had to do was find one of these."

A section of the shield world was magnified and enhanced, what looked like a tunnel extended from the surface to the interior.

"There are a series of airlocks spread throughout the sphere that allows a ship to enter" Shane explained.

"But considering the fact they built planets like Onyx that had portals to the actual shield world, its safe to assume that the actual Dyson spheres themselves were re purposed to serve as bomb shelters" Halsey cut in. "Otherwise it would make no sense for the Forerunners to place easily accessible airlocks on the spheres."

"Well the team that designed the slipspace field didn't have a lot of time, they were able to put this whole thing together inside of a year" Shane said.

"You have records on the actual team that put this together?" Halsey asked.

"The records are rather incomplete and encrypted, all I know was that it was a five person team that designed the slipspace field" Shane said.

"I'm curious, do you have records on something like this?" Halsey asked as she produced her laptop and called up an image of the Forerunner crystal found under Reach.

Kyle saw that Tom and Lucy had left, obviously fed up with the science lesson Halsey turned it into. Kyle left the room too and was halfway down the hall when Halsey came after him.

"Look, doctor, I really don't give a damn about that crystal anymore" Kyle said.

"That's not what I wanted to talk to you about" Halsey said. "I wanted to speak to you about my daughter."

"Your daughter?!" Kyle asked.

"Surely you remember that day back on Reach when you found out I was pregnant with Miranda?"

"Its starting to come back" Kyle said.

"I remember you saying that you knew who she was, was she in one of your videogames about our universe?"

"She was" Kyle replied.

"Does something happen to her?" Halsey asked.

"Doctor, I don't think this is a...."

"I don't want to hear it!" Halsy barked. "She is the only family I have left. Surely you of all people can understand my position."

"Doctor, you were the one who told me about not giving up any information on the future" Kyle retorted.

"I don't care. I'm begging you, please tell me what happens to her."

"She's killed" Kyle replied bitterly. "On the ark when the Master Chief stops the halos from firing."

Halsey looked down as tears began to sting her eyes. She removed her glasses, wiped her eyes clean and put them back on.

"Kyle, you have to promise me you'll save her" Halsey demanded.

"Doctor, you of all people should know that..."

"Kyle, please!" Halsey barked. "I have never asked you for anything, and quite frankly you owe me a great deal. I know its not right of me to have to use that against you, or that its for my own selfish task. You're not a parent, so I don't expect you to understand what its like to love a child like I love Miranda. I had to distance myself during most of her life, with Jacob dead, I'm all she has left too."

"Ok, doctor" Kyle replied.

Kyle was surprised when Halsey suddenly hugged him, burying her face in his armor plates. Kyle gently set one of his hands on her back.

"Thank you, Kyle" Halsey said.

"I'd better get going, Fred wants me to give a briefing on the ark in ten minutes."

"I'll walk with you" Halsey said as she looped her arm around Kyle's and they proceeded down the hall.

"Kyle, I think you'll make a fine parent someday" Halsey said.

"I'm not so sure" Kyle said. "Besides, what makes you so sure I want kids?"

"You and Kelly are romantically involved, surely you plan on having kids someday?"

"It wasn't really on the table" Kyle said. "Besides, what kind of father could I possibly be, me, a career soldier?"

"You're a very strong individual Kyle, I have no doubt you'll make an excellent father. But I can tell something else is troubling you."

"It's just... my father wasn't always there for me" Kyle said. He stopped walking and shook his head, "besides, Kelly probably couldn't even get pregnant if we tried."

"Kelly most certainly get pregnant" Halsey said.

Kyle looked down at the elder scientist as she raised an eyebrow

"Did you assume the Spartans were sterile?" Halsey asked.

"Sort of" Kyle replied.

"Well you don't have anything to worry about, Kelly's reproductive system still works as does every other female Spartan's, all one of them anyway."

"Uh, doctor... we've had sex" Kyle said.

"I see" Halsey said. "Kyle, the odds of her getting pregnant from one night of unprotected sex is quite low, especially since she isn't in her menstrual cycle. But first chance I get I'll check her for you."

"Thanks, doctor" Kyle replied.

Halsey and Kyle started walking down the hall only to be met by Linda as she headed in the opposite direction.

"You two haven't seen Kelly?" She asked.

"No, I thought she was with you already" Kyle said.

"Fred's been trying to Reach her, tell her about your briefing."

"She's probably just dozed off back in the room" Kyle said. "She won't miss the briefing."

--

Kelly was actually inside what she assumed was the bathroom, having been pointed there by Shane. She was hunched over a sink that had been designed for Shane, in her hands was her helmet and she splashed the in interior with a small amount of water, then cleaned it with a cloth she'd found on a rack nearby. Kelly had thrown up in the helmet five minutes earlier and quickly searched for the bathroom, finding Shane who pointed her in the right direction. She managed to clean the inside of the helmet and dry it off, but just as she finished, another wave of nausea came over her and she promptly threw up in the sink. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she sat down against the wall and willed the nausea to go away. She had been feeling sick all morning, first it was cramps, then the vomiting.

_What's happening to me?_ Kelly thought. She knew it was some kind of virus, possibly something carried by one of the Covenant species, and she knew she had to tell Fred. However they would need every Spartan when they got to Earth, and so she kept her mystery illness a secret, even to Kyle.


	22. Chapter 22: so its come to this

**Message from a distressed general: **Phew, sorry it took so long, been busy with stuff. Anyway, this story is practically complete.... just one more chapter to go.

Also, for the past few chapters I've noticed a drop off in reviews. Not liking it, people.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**chapter 22: so its come to this**

November 12, 2552

location: Sol system, Earth, Sydney- UNSC naval hospital

It had been two days since Kyle came back from the dead and after a battery of tests to confirm that the flood genes were inert, Kyle was moved from isolation to recovery so he could have visitors. Although visiting hours were technically over, Kelly managed to sneak into Kyle's room, undetected, an impressive feat considering she was still clad in her MJOLNIR armor. Kyle was faced with a pretty heavy decision, not to mention a certain amount of guilt. He didn't suffer any short term memory loss and therefore remembered what Guilty Spark had said on Halo, that he had impregnated Kelly. He felt sort of reckless, even though he hadn't been in high school in nearly thirty years he still remembered to this day all the things he'd been taught in health class about using protection during sex. Look where it got him.

"Look..."

"I..."

They had both said at the same time. They smiled a bit before Kelly said: "why don't you go first."

"No, that's ok, you go" Kyle replied.

"You're not going to make this easy, are you?" Kelly asked.

"Well its not exactly an easy subject" Kyle said.

"Why do you think that?" Kelly asked.

"Its kinda complicated" Kyle replied.

"Kyle, its perfectly alright if you're angry" Kelly said.

"Angry!?" Kyle said. "I feel completely guilty. Kelly, I feel like I hurt you."

Kelly hung her head low, and remembered her conversation with Halsey a few minutes earlier.

--

Kelly was lying on her back in an exam room as Halsey performed an ultrasound as part of Kelly's first prenatal exam. Halsey had agreed to handle Kelly's prenatal care for the foreseeable future.

"Again with the blood work?" Kelly droned as she felt a needle penetrate through her armor's injection port.

"We have to make sure you're healthy" Halsey explained. "Since you're well into the first trimester, the risk of miscarriage is increased."

"Oh" Kelly muttered.

Even though Halsey couldn't see her face through her reflective faceplate, Halsey knew she had a long look just now.

"Look, Kelly, I understand your reasons for wanting to keep the baby when we last talked. But Kyle's alive now, I need to know if you're having thoughts about an abortion?"

Kelly sat up on the bed, then slid her feet over the side, but remained sitting. She stayed motionless for a few moments, and that gave Halsey all the information she needed.

"You haven't talked to him about this, have you?"

"How could I, he's still in isolation. I don't want to talk to him across a piece of glass" said Kelly.

"Kelly, you should know... Kyle isn't enthusiastic about having children" Halsey said.

"How would you know that?" Kelly asked.

"He talked with me, ironically about you getting pregnant. He said he isn't interested in children... because he isn't sure what kind of a father he can be."

"Why?" Kelly asked.

"I'm surprised he didn't tell you" Halsey said. "His father wasn't there for him, one of the consequences of being in a military family. I think he doesn't want that to happen again."

"Then we'll resign" Kelly said, "so he doesn't have to face that."

"Kelly, I wish it was that easy, but ONI won't let you resign" Halsey said. "Naval code 45182 authorized your conscription, and states you're not eligible for resignation or discharge except in circumstances of debilitating injury. So unless you and Kyle would liked to be paralyzed..."

"Will they make us fight?" Kelly said.

"Since the war is over, I think it's high time you Spartans were given some time off said Halsey. I'm sure HIGHCOM will be able to persuade ONI to reassign the two of you. Assuming you plan on keeping the baby?"

Kelly hung her head low again as the conversation was once again drawn to her child.

"Talk to him, make him understand you're not giving up" Halsey said.

"I can't" Kelly muttered, "I'm a mess, I cried my eyes out for him when I should have been stronger."

"He means more to you than anyone else, it's understandable" Halsey said. "Its also attributed to the change your body is going through. With pregnancy comes certain hormone fluctuations that can make even the sternest, emotionless person, moody. Not to mention a certain amount of physical discomfort.

She reached into her pocket and removed a syringe, a few moments later she felt a prick from her armor's injection port as the medicine entered her bloodstream.

"It's a cocktail that should hopefully manage the hormone fluctuations more easily. And slow down the development of the fetus to a more manageable rate. I'd say mid-March for a due date."

She lowered her voice to a whisper.

"According to the scans, you're pregnant with a girl."

"I wanna talk to him about this" Kelly said sternly.

"He was moved to recovery about an hour ago, I don't think you'll have any trouble getting in."

Kelly quickly bounded off the bed, reattached the rest of her armor and left the room.

--

So here she sat with a less than enthusiastic Kyle, telling her this was all just a big mistake. Kyle wouldn't even meet her gaze. Kelly removed her helmet, gauntlets and began stripping away the armor on her belly.

"What are you doing?" Kyle asked.

Kelly had just finished getting the armor off when she said "give me your hand."

"What?"

"Just give me your hand" Kelly said as she snatched it away from his side, and pressed it against her belly. Kyle knew he couldn't escape Kelly's iron grip without aggravating his injuries. But suddenly, his foul mood suddenly changed when he felt a small tap against his hand, and realized where it was coming from. Kelly let him go and Kyle pulled his hand away.

"Look me in the eye and honestly tell me you don't want this" Kelly said to him.

Kyle suddenly felt changed about what had just happened, god, that was his kid in there! He couldn't believe he'd been so rude to her about this.

"I'm sorry" he finally muttered after a tense silence. "I'm sorry about everything I've said, I'm such an idiot."

"Kyle, no you're not" Kelly said.

"This is just way too much to take in all of a sudden" Kyle said.

As Kyle raised a hand to his head to rub his temple, Kelly felt the baby give a sharp kick so she instinctively put a hand against her belly.

"You ok?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah, she's been kicking a lot lately, Halsey said it should pass after awhile."

"She? You mean it's a..."

"Girl? Yeah" Kelly said.

She looked back at him and noticed a smile on his face, something she hadn't seen in a long time.

"Wait, it hasn't been that long since we.... well you know. How is the baby already kicking?" Kyle asked.

"Halsey said her growth is accelerated probably because of the augmentations, she says I'm already well into the first trimester."

Kyle was a bit taken back by what Kelly said, and promptly threw his head back against his pillow.

"What's wrong?" Kelly asked.

"First I find out I'm gonna be a dad. Next you tell me it's gonna be sooner rather than later" Kyle replied.

"So does that mean you wanna keep it?" Kelly asked.

"I'm willing if you are" Kyle said.

Kelly immediately broke out into a smile, which was followed by a quick hug, or more like a bear squeeze.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Kyle!" Kelly kept repeating.

"Ow, Kelly... ribs!" Kyle muttered.

"Oh, sorry" Kelly said as she let go, completely forgetting he had three broken ribs.

"So I guess we'll be pretty busy for a while" Kyle said as he massaged his side. "I'm gonna need rehab after this, you'll have to find someone to do the prenatal..."

"Taken care of" Kelly replied.

"We'll need a place to live."

"Normal jobs."

"I think we should start a list" Kelly suggested.

Names" Kyle muttered.

"_Busy, indeed"_ Kelly thought.

* * *

March 9, 2553

location: North America

Kelly paced the 2nd floor hallway of her home as she went for the only other bedroom on the floor, her daughter's. Kelly pushed the door open and saw Rebbecca thrashing around in he crib, crying. Kelly reached in and pulled her out, mimicking what Kyle showed her the other day she held Rebbecca against her shoulder and gently placed her free hand on her back.

"Shhhh" she whispered.

Rebbecca stopped crying, but was still awake and moaning. Kelly swayed back a forth the way Kyle did when he held her, thinking it would sooth her. Kelly had thought the hardest part was giving birth, boy was she in for a shocker when the last few nights were spent with no sleep. For anyone in the house. Rebbecca was starting to become more upset, and the last thing Kelly wanted was for her to wake Kyle up, who was getting a decent amount of sleep tonight she decided. Something suddenly came to mind and she began humming a tune that popped into her head. Whatever it was, worked, Rebbecca was fast asleep within a couple of minutes.

"Where'd you learn that?" Kyle asked.

"I thought you were still asleep?" Kelly said.

"Not with sleeping beauty in your arms, crying" Kyle said.

"She's fine now, you need the rest, you've been looking after her ever since we brought her home."

"I know" Kyle said, "its just... she's the only true family I have here."

"What about me, and the other Spartans?" Kelly asked.

"Well you've always been different, and so have the other Spartans. You were all the closest things I had to family here, but it just wasn't the same. Now I've got just you and Rebbecca, you're all the family I need. You still didn't answer my question, where'd you learn that tune?"

"Kyle, I know this is going to sound crazy, but I think my mother used to hum it to me."

"I thought you didn't remember anything about her?" Kyle asked.

"Not most of it, but I guess some of the little things I held onto and never really realized it" Kelly said. "I wish I could have met her. I wonder what she'd think of me?"

"She would have been proud of what you've done, for Earth, for me. I could only imagine the look on her face when she finds out she's a grandmother."

"Why do you say something like that, it's not like she's alive anymore."

"I wouldn't count her out, she's very resourceful". Too late had Kyle realized he'd said too much.

"How would you know that?" Kelly asked, "is there something I should know?"

Kyle took a deep breath before saying, "wait here". He left the room and came back a few minutes later with a folded piece of paper. Kelly transferred Rebbecca over to him and Kyle gave here the paper.

"What is this?" Kelly said as she opened it.

"It's a letter.... from your mother" Kyle replied.

Kelly didn't bother to ask how or why, she simply held the letter next to the window where the light was shining in, and began to read.


	23. Alternate Ending To Kyle 091

**Message from the general: **two reviews last chapter!?, I simply requested an increase, is it too much trouble for you to take two minutes and write down your thoughts on the chapter?

Anyway, in case you didn't guess from the title, this is a possible alternate ending to Kyle-091, I don't think I have to tell you what the plot is, and you don't know how close this came to being the real ending.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine**

**alternate ending**

November 11, 2552

location: Sol system, Earth, Sydney- UNSC Navy hospital

"You won't forget me" said Kyle as he placed Kelly's hand on her abdomen "I will always be with you, through our child. He or she is going to need a mother. You can't live in the past, please promise me you'll move on, have a good life... both of you".

"I will" she said as she removed her helmet and kissed him one last time.

"I'll be here when your time comes" Kyle said. "Make sure you live a good, full life, don't rush to be here with me again".

"Kyle" Kelly muttered as she found herself back in the hospital room, the hallucination was over. She was frozen in place with her finger just inches from the green button that would release Kyle. This shouldn't be her choice, there had to be a way to save him. But even she knew his injuries were too extensive, no amount of surgery could save him. She glanced over at him, lying on the bed in a coma, tubes hooked throughout him. Kelly whispered "please forgive me". Swallowing her courage and mustering ever ounce of strength she had, Kelly pushed the button. A flashback of events appeared before her eyes, all the time she spent with Kyle, the good and bad times. But this was drowned away by the whine from the vital monitors, Kyle had died. Kelly turned to face his body and dropped to her knees in front of the bed. She removed her helmet and lay her face against the side of his hand, taking in what warmth was left, that's when she finally started to cry. She'd effectively killed the man she'd loved, the father of her unborn child. She looked up at his face, his eyes remained shut, he no longer took in air, the color in his face was starting to fade. Kelly felt truly alone for the first time in years.

"Kelly, we should just let him be" said Fred as he set a hand on her.

Kelly didn't move and Fred had to pull Kelly upright. He placed an arm around Kelly and led her out of the room just as the doctor puled the sheet over Kyle's face. Linda collected her helmet and followed with Will and Doctor Halsey. They walked back to the waiting area where everyone else was still gathered. They all saw Kelly's look and assumed the worst.

"I am sorry for the loss of your mate, Spartan" said The Arbiter, "he was a brave warrior."

Kelly was showered by more sympathetic apologies from Shane, Tom and everyone else. Eventually she just lost her composure and broke down in tears again. Fred and Halsey took her to a private room to have her lie down. When they arrived Kelly collapsed on the floor, still crying. Kelly had practically lost the will to live. When Fred leaned down to see if she was alright, she shoved him into the wall, grabbing his sidearm from his thighplate. Pressing the gun to her temple, she prepared to take her own life. But suddenly froze up, not knowing what was causing it, until a sharp lance of pain lashed through her abdomen and she keeled over. Fred and Halsey were at her side in seconds, Kelly was being emptied of all feeling as Fred was yelling at her to tell him where the pain was. She didn't know how she managed it but was able to identify the spot. Fred began tearing her armor off while Halsey called for med techs. Fred stopped as he reached her undersuit, and his gauntlets came away with blood. Kelly realized where she was bleeding from, the fear gripped her heart as she screamed, then lost consciousness.

--

Kelly came to a few hours later, she was in hospital dress and had a couple IVs in her arm. Her abdomen felt sore so she lifted up her dress and found a fresh bandage over her abdomen.

"You nearly lost the baby" said Fred who was standing near the window, still at a loss for words. "Halsey said it was probably caused by all the stress you were putting yourself through."

Kelly still couldn't say anything to him, it had taken nearly loosing the one thing that she realized was her only reason to live. She remembered how she promised Kyle in the dream not to end her own life and to raise their child, how could she ever forgive herself.

"I want to see him" Kelly said.

Fred nodded sympathetically and ordered a wheelchair be brought down. Kelly managed to work her way onto it and Fred wheeled her downstairs to the morgue. A black body bag sat on a gurney in the morgue, waiting to be shipped out. Fred took Kelly over to it and set her chair by it, then left her alone.

"I failed you" Kelly said. "I almost let you down. I'm not sure if I have the strength to go on because you were always there for me. When I had a problem you were the first I turned to for help. You were also the first man I ever truly loved". She put a hand on the bag and took a deep breath, "when you kissed me the first time I never wanted to do anything else but be with you, nothing else mattered, not the war, not everyone else, all that mattered was you and me. When we had that night together in the shield world..." she chuckled a bit. "It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, even the pregnancy. You were right you know, about putting our feelings aside when it matters most, especially now. I can't grieve forever, I know that". She sniffled a bit, "and it pains me that... our child will never know its own father. But if you taught me anything its that we can't live in the past, we decide our own fates, our own destines. You don't let hardship stop you from doing what you know is right. You don't give up..." she set her free hand over her abdomen. "...when a reason to live stares at you right in the face. You taught me to be determined until the end. You sacrificed yourself so I wouldn't get hit by that beam, so that our baby could live. You did something no one could ask of you, and you gave me a debt I can only repay by fulfilling my promise. Fred, Will, Linda, Halsey, Kalmiya, they all love you. Your child loves you and I love you. I love you with all my heart, Kyle. I always have... and I always will."

She turned and wheeled herself out of the morgue, not looking back.

* * *

November 12, 2552

location: Sol system, Earth, North America- pelican dropship over grid 17 by 56 (area formally known as Alexandria, VA)

It wasn't his home, Kelly knew that. But it was the most fitting spot as she stood at the open ramp of the dropship, wearing her MJOLNIR armor, carrying a small, metal cylinder. In the dropship was Kelly, Blue team and doctor Halsey. Riding inside Kelly's armor however was Kalmiya, who reluctantly agreed to accompanying them as Kelly went to spread his ashes. Kelly had requested his body be cremated, she didn't want a grave marker to serve as a permanent reminder to her. The pelican entered a holding pattern and Kelly looked out down below. Alexandria had been destroyed in this universe during world war III and the local area had reverted back to the forested region it once was.

"A fitting place" Kalmiya said. "Its time".

"That it is" Kelly said as she unscrewed the top and held the cylinder out over the side. A steady stream of gray ash floated out in a trail behind the pelican until there was no more. She even let the cylinder and the cap for it fall out the back, wanting zero reminders of him.

"You know we'll always be here for you" Linda said as Kelly sat back down.

"We won't let you go this alone" said Fred.

Thanks Kelly muttered happily. She took some small comfort in the fact she was surrounded by friends. The remaining Spartans had been assigned to a base on Earth, Kelly included. She remained isolated from everyone else and stayed in her MJOLNIR armor until her pregnancy prevented it. Shortly after Will's death, she gave birth to a girl whom she named Rebbecca. The name was actually Kelly's mother's, Halsey was kind enough to allow Kelly to view the files on her parents, but was also saddened to learn they were dead and she had no blood relatives alive. However, she took comfort in the fact she had someone to care for now.

* * *

25 years later...

July 28, 2577

location: Sol system, Earth, Sydney- UNSC Navy hospital

"You're clear to proceed" said the MP as he handed the ID back to the woman driving a warthog. She was allowed to pass and the warthog drove up to one of the lots near the front of building. The occupant, a young woman got out, entered the hospital and went to the receptionist's desk.

"You need to wait here" said the receptionist. "Doctor Williams is on his way."

The woman need only wait a few minutes before an middle aged doctor walked up to her.

"Rebbecca Stevens?" He asked.

"Yes" the woman replied. "How's my mother?"

"Follow me" said Williams as he took Rebbecca down the hall. "Your mother was burned mostly on her back by the explosion but she's doing fine. The skin grafts held but her kidneys needed to be replaced. She's on dialysis until we can grow them."

Rebbecca let out a sigh of relief as they reached her room. "Can I see her?"

"Of course, she might be sleeping" said Williams. "You can stay for a few hours but we'll be doing the transplant later tonight."

Rebbecca nodded and entered the room. Lying on a bed was her mother, Kelly-087. Even though she was 67, she didn't look it. Her skin was nearly as smooth as Rebbecca's and her hair had only a few gray streaks. She had a couple of IVs in her arm and some tubes that went into her back, connected to a machine at her bedside. Rebbecca sat down in a chair against the window, her eyes wandered to the beautiful day outside.

"I thought you'd show up" said Kelly as she woke up.

"Hey, mom" said Rebbecca. "I herd you had quite the accident up on the station."

"You could say that" Kelly replied. "They shouldn't play around with the plasma feed like that. Even though the new weapon systems would render our current ones obsolete, it still wasn't worth the risk."

"Be grateful you only got away with a couple of burns" said Rebbecca. "The MP who came by the base and told me you were in the hospital nearly gave me a heart attack."

"At your age?" Kelly chuckled. "You're 25, you have your whole life ahead of you". Kelly sighed and Rebbecca noticed it.

"Is something wrong?" Rebbecca asked.

"This is hard for me" Kelly started. "It always has."

"What has?"

"Going on with my life, ever since I lost your father" said Kelly. She knew it was time her daughter learned the truth, the truth she'd kept hidden for years. Kelly remembered the first time Rebbecca asked about her father, she was four and wanted to know why she didn't have a daddy. Kelly calmly told her it was because her daddy died before she was born. Rebbecca never brought it up again, but Kelly knew it was the time.

"I never told you how I lost your father" Kelly started. "He died saving me from a piece of debris that was going to hit me. He took it for me, the doctors tried to save him, but they couldn't. He was on life support and would only live for a few hours. I... let him go, I released him from this world."

"Mom..." Rebbecca muttered. She also noticed a few tears in her mother's eyes, she wasn't joking about this.

"I had this hallucination right before I did it, your father appeared to me and told me it was ok to let him go. He said I shouldn't rush to be with him on the other side, to raise you and make sure you had a life. After I pulled the plug, I was so grief stricken... I tried to kill myself. I nearly had a miscarriage at the same time, that's what stopped me."

"I nearly... died?" Rebbecca asked.

"It was thanks to a skilled doctor I know, she saved you. I never forgave myself for almost killing myself and you" said Kelly who was starting to cry a little more. "I remembered what I promised your father in that dream and I took comfort in it. I moved on, gave birth to you, raised you into the beautiful young woman you are."

"Thanks, mom" said Rebbecca.

"Which makes this all the more painful for me" Kelly said.

"I don't get it, mom. What does?"

"What I have to ask you, Rebbecca" said Kelly. "What I need you to do for me."

"Mom, you're scaring me here" said Rebbecca.

"Rebbecca, honey, I want you to let me go" said Kelly.

"You're delirious, mom!" said Rebbecca. "How could you even be thinking something like that! I mean, you're not that old. You just need a kidney transplant, that's all. It's not like you have cancer or something."

"Rebbecca, listen to me" Kelly started. "This is not some kind of delusion brought on by the meds, nor is it some head injury. I've done what I promised your dad, now it's time for me to join him."

"Then why don't you?" Rebbecca asked. "You don't need me to die."

"Because if I committed suicide, then you would have thought I was sick, and you'd beat yourself up over it for not realizing it sooner. I didn't want to hurt you."

"You're hurting me right now!" Rebbecca yelled. "What kind of mother asks her daughter to kill her based solely on some bogus promise she made to someone who was in a coma at the time!?"

"Rebbecca, please" Kelly said. "I've fulfilled my promise, I just want to be with him on the other side."

"And what about me? Don't you think I _still_ need you?"

"Rebbecca, you're strong, you get that from your father. You don't need me in order to succeed in the world. I've been in pain ever since he died, ever since you were born. I've cried sometimes when I wake up at night at he isn't there helping me raise you, and sometimes I think it's my fault. Please help me, please release me from my pain."

"Mom...." Rebbecca muttered. She was on the bring of tears, and slowly turned away from Kelly to wipe her eyes clean before meeting her gaze. Rebbecca sniffled and said, "what do you need me to do?"

"The dialysis machine, over there" Kelly said. "Switch it off, without kidneys, toxins will slowly build up in my bloodstream."

"Mom, won't you be in pain?"

"Morphine, second drawer down" Kelly said pointing to the table on the other side of the room. Rebbecca went over and removed a syringe, followed by the bottle of medicine.

"Get another syringe, and load it with a 200 milligram dose" Kelly instructed.

"That's fatal" Rebbecca said.

"I know, but as soon as my heart rate goes into the red, the doctors are gonna be crashing through that door. I doubt you'll be able to hold them off. If I inject that dose into my femoral, it'll only take a few moments for my heart to stop."

Rebbecca shook her head for a moment before using the first dose on her mother, and keeping the second, fatal one in her pocket. She returned to her mother's bedside and held her hand as she slowly began to slip away. For over an hour, Kelly told Rebbecca stories about her father, eventually settling on his origins, where he really came from.

"It's nice to know I actually do have some family left, even if I can't reach them" Rebbecca muttered.

"Sweetie, it's getting harder to breathe" Kelly muttered. "They'll be coming."

Sure enough, the bio monitor began to flash a waring, followed by a whine. Rebbecca passed the syringe to her mother and stood up, unbuttoning her holster. A few moments later doctor Williams and a pair of nurses came through the door.

"What the hell did you do to her!?" Williams demanded.

"Only what she wants, now back off!" Rebbecca snapped.

"Ma'am you need to step away and let us through" Williams said as he prepared to push Rebbecca away. Rebbecca shoved him back with one hand and drew her gun with the other, pointing it squarely at Williams' chest. One of the nurses darted out of the room while Williams and the second nurse stood transfixed at the barrel of Rebbecca's sidearm. Kelly knew it would only be a matter of time before security arrived, so she removed the second syringe from underneath her bedsheets and jabbed I into her thigh. She depressed the button at the top and the lethal dose of morphine rushed into her veins. Rebbecca turned back to look at her mother and saw what she had done. Rebbecca lowered her weapon and went over to her mother.

"Mom, no!" Rebbecca screamed.

"Sweetheart, it's ok" Kelly said as she reached out and stroked her daughter's face, "it's what I want. You have to promise me something."

"Anything" Rebbecca said, tears slowly staining her eyes.

"Do not let this be the end of you, pick up the pieces and move on. Don't second guess what you helped me do."

"I promise mom, I promise" Rebbecca said.

"I love you" Kelly said as her hand slipped away from her face, too weak to hold it there. The security guards rushed the room and Kelly slowly felt herself slip away. The last thing she herd was Rebbecca's voice yelling at the guards, and then.... silence.

It was black, but suddenly Kelly felt something, on her skin. She opened her eyes and found the scenery had changed, instead of a hospital room, she was in the middle of a meadow overlooking a lake. The sky was a pale blue and dew was present on the long grasses, a sign it was early in the morning. The sun still had yet to rise. Kelly stood up and tried to get her bearings, and that's when she saw him.

On a rock, overlooking the lake, sat a man, but not just any man. Kelly slowly approached him, after all these years his face still looked the same.

"I was wondering when you'd show up" Kyle said to her.

Kelly didn't wast another second as she threw herself into Kyle's waiting arms. Their lips came together, Kelly being the forceful one. When they broke apart, each gasping for air, Kelly started to cry.

"I thought I'd never see you again" she said to him.

"I told you I'd be here when your time came, so here we are."

"I missed you" she said as their foreheads pressed together.

"I missed you too" Kyle replied. "So tell me, boy or girl?"

"Oh, it was a girl" Kelly replied. "I wish you could have been there."

"She'll be here eventually" Kyle said, "but not too soon."

Kelly stared out at the lake as the sun started to come up on the horizon.

"When the sun rises over those hills, this entire valley is slowly bathed in light, you should see when the sun's rays hit the surface of the lake, all the colors, it's almost heavenly. It reminds me of you."

"Kyle, how long will this last?"

"As long as we want it to" Kyle said, "because Spartans never die."

Kelly leaned her head against his shoulder and watched as the light from the sun hit the lake and slowly washed over them.

* * *

There you have it, all the deleted stuff that wasn't in the first fic. And let me say I hope EVERYONE leaves a review on what they thought.

Also, the next fic I'm working on will be the official sequel to Kyle-091, and stuff from this fic will also be included. If all goes well, and assuming I'm in a good review from the sheer numbers of reviews this chapter should receive, I might get it up tonight.

And remember, REVIEW!


End file.
